Undercover Boss (2010) s07e02 Episode Script
Nestlé Toll House Café
(male announcer) Tonight on "Undercover Boss" Shawnon Bellah, Chief Operating Officer of Nestlé Toll House Café by Chip goes undercover in her own company.
Your eyebrows are on fleek.
Do I say that? Don't do that.
Don't do that.
(announcer) By joining her employees on the front lines All right, good job.
Let's get it, go.
Oh, my lord.
(announcer) This tough leader This is like torture.
(announcer) Will meet the people who keep her company on the rise.
We got to pick it up a little bit.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Oh, I forgot something.
(announcer) While undercover, she'll get lost in the mix.
(man) There you go.
Put some back into it.
That dinosaur looks like he's already extinct.
I wish I had more support from the corporate offices.
(announcer) And what will happen when she finds out that her leadership style is burning the batch? They told me they were out of stock.
I'm pretty sure if someone from corporate came up and saw I didn't have 'em, then I'm sure I'd get in trouble.
We get audited through our camera systems.
The VP of the company will make dinner, open up her laptop and leave the feed running.
Corporate is everywhere.
They are Big Brother.
(announcer) Find out next on "Undercover Boss.
" [upbeat music.]
(announcer) Headquartered in Richardson, Texas, Nestlé Toll House Café by Chip is a string of dessert cafés based on the iconic Nestlé Toll House cookie.
With 147 locations and 1,600 employees Here you are.
(announcer) This fast-growing chain is rising to the top.
Making sure the future stays sweet is one woman.
I want everyone across the world to be able to say that they've tasted a Toll House cookie, and it is the best cookie that they have ever tasted.
[upbeat music.]
My name is Shawnon Bellah, and I'm chief operating officer for Nestlé Toll House Café by Chip.
The foundation of our product is the Toll House cookie.
It has a nostalgia about it.
They're warm, they're homey.
I mean, that cookie just it brings families together.
The company licensed its name from Nestlé in 1998, and opened shop in the year 2000.
The brand grew its revenues moderately to around $20 million with 60 locations.
I joined in 2008 and we grew to nearly 150 locations with more than $55 million in revenue.
Last year alone, we sold over 17 million cookies.
Six months ago, I was promoted to COO and we're focused on dominating the cookie market.
We should be a $500 million company.
That's our goal.
This goal will be accomplished.
Thank you.
What makes me different is I didn't come straight from college into a board room and do this job.
I knew by not having a degree that the only way that I would be able to excel was to work harder and faster than those around me.
And that's exactly what I did.
When I became Vice President of Operations in 2010, I developed all the manuals, developed the recipe books, the training practices, for the entire company.
It took about 70 days for me to change the trend of the business.
We were negative for nine months straight.
Ever since then, we have had positive sales, positive growth, and that is why I was promoted COO this year.
I'm involved in every aspect of the company.
Okay, so the feedback last year was that you couldn't taste the pumpkin.
So what'd you guys do? Just added more pumpkin spice? We added a little bit more pumpkin spice.
Okay, what else? My team members will tell you that I'm a tough boss.
I have high standards for myself.
Therefore, I have high standards for them.
Thank you, guys.
And also, as COO of this company, I'm heavily involved in our corporate locations.
We utilize our corporate cafés to test menu items, training standards, before they actually roll out to everyone.
I have the technology so that I can see these corporate locations from my computer and see how their business is actually doing.
Whenever you come onboard here, there has to be a passion for the brand.
You have to be a brand ambassador in everything that you do.
And I need to keep pushing to make sure that they are.
I'm running one of the top but I also have a responsibility at home as a single mom.
How are ya? - Yay.
- Good.
I've been divorced now for two years.
I have two children.
Show me the cheer that you guys learned today.
Okay.
We'll rise to the top Very nice.
I am a very strict parent.
The list I left this morning.
How did you guys do? Bethany? I finished everything except for my algebra.
So you're gonna work on that now? Yes.
I push them.
I challenge them to be better.
I'm teaching them what it takes to win.
How's that coming? Good.
- Hey.
- Hi, how are you? Good.
I'm thinking blonde.
I've never been blonde before.
Maybe some tight curls.
- Can it be done? - Oh, definitely.
(Shawnon) Since coming on as COO, we've sold over 80 franchise locations.
But I want to insure that we're setting ourselves up to continue to grow.
I want to go undercover to really find out what's going on in the cafés.
In order for us to set ourselves apart, we have to deliver an exceptional experience over and over again.
While undercover, I'll be posing as Kristy, also known as K.
J.
My employees will think I'm on a reality TV show, trying to win $250,000 to open my own baking business.
I'm so well-known in this company I'm going to have a drastic disguise.
I've dyed my hair - No way.
- Voilà .
I've changed my eye color, and I have a complete new wardrobe.
Let's do this.
[playful music.]
Surprise.
- [laughter.]
- Mom.
So, what do you think? Oh, my.
I need some pointers from you guys.
How do I act cool? Do I just kind of do, like, a sway, like this? - Don't sway.
- Don't do that.
Do I talk like, "Hey, dude.
" No.
- Hey.
- Yo, brah.
Your eyebrows are on fleek.
Do I say that? 'Cause I heard your friends say that.
Sure.
- Bye.
- Love you.
Love you too.
I don't know what tomorrow will hold, but I'm ready for it.
- Bye.
- Love you.
[lively guitar music.]
(Shawnon) Today I'm in Tucker, Georgia and I'm visiting the CSM Bakery Solutions manufacturing plant.
This is one of our third-party manufacturing plants that actually supplies us with all our icings.
I've never been to the icing facility before.
Hi, I'm here to see Anthony today.
But to deliver a fantastic cookie cake, you have to great icing to go with it.
That sets us apart from our competitors.
- Hey, how's it going? - Hi, how are you? - Anthony.
I'm good.
I'm fine.
- Kristy Jones.
I'm so excited to work with you today.
You're gonna have a great time.
Let's go ahead and get suited up so we can get to business.
Okay.
Thank you.
(Anthony) My first impression just by looking at her, I was like, "Wow, she's very attractive.
" She doesn't look like she's built for manual labor in this facility.
Well, let's go ahead and get started.
All right.
[intense guitar music.]
- We make a lot of icing.
- You can smell the sugar.
Exactly.
And you've worked here for how long now? - Ten years.
- Wow.
That product that they're making right now is cream cheese icing.
- Oh.
- Yes.
The majority of this line consists of a lot of ingredients being put in.
The most important thing is you follow your recipe.
Now you want to hold that secure.
Has a little weight to it.
You just want to pour it down in there.
Real slowly.
- Yes.
- How's that? Yes, it's looking good.
Looking real good.
You make it easy.
So this is where you're gonna make your first batch.
Oh, my Lord.
I mean, honestly I'm I'm really excited, because, you know, I never really got a chance to just watch anybody work, but they say, "Kudos!" I'm good to go, man, what's happening? Okay, so, cream cheese.
I hope you slept good last night.
All right, good job.
Let's get it, go! - All right.
- Oh, my God! Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! Baby, take it easy.
You got to put your back into it.
Oh, my God.
Oh, yeah, you're gonna sleep good tonight.
All right, good job.
Good job.
There you go Put your back into it.
Oh, I'm loving this.
- Ah! - Yeah, that's a workout.
K.
J.
probably didn't think that making icing was as extreme as it was.
- All right, now, let's roll.
- I got it! - There we go.
- Ah! She gave me a look today like, "Oh, wow, you guys do this for eight hours?" [sighs.]
Oh, my God.
Uh, exactly.
I don't know about you, but I'm a I'm a Yankee fan.
So, uh, it's almost batter up.
- So you like the Yankees? - Yeah.
Do you ever see 'em? No, unfortunately, I haven't.
Never seen 'em.
Okay, our next batch.
- No! Another batch? - Oh, yeah.
Oh, my Lord.
- You all right? - Yeah, I got it.
Okay.
Oh, my Lord.
(Shawnon) Getting back there and seeing how our product is made, I'm struggling.
- Let's go.
- Ah! I'm lifting 50-pound bags of this stuff and you have to work fast.
We got people downstairs.
They're a little angry at you.
- Oh, no! - Waiting on this product.
It's demanding physically.
Look at the bright side.
You only got five left.
Mentally, I can't hear a thing.
I'm hot.
Whoa! It's tough.
It's very tough.
- You all right? - Yeah.
You ready for 12 more? Yeah.
[laughs.]
Well, if all you do is smile, it helps, does it? [laughs.]
I'm super excited that Anthony is responsible for the icing that goes to our stores You just made a great batch.
I'ma give you a taste test downstairs.
Okay.
(Shawnon) Because I know that it's been made with care.
It's recipe right, and he does it with a smile.
Here we go.
The good stuff.
You're tasting your work.
- Wow.
- Oh, it's beautiful, isn't it? Oh, my gosh.
This icing that we made today is for? We really don't know well, I really don't know I'll say.
I would love to know who gets the product.
Interesting.
Once I put my best foot forward of making this product, you know, it really means a lot to me, you know? I give a lot of effort towards batch-making, and this is it's a great experience and it's a great product.
(Shawnon) Anthony loves the product that he's making.
He has no idea who's selling it.
It's much more than just going into the tubs for us, because that icing impacts the lives of our franchise partners.
and he's a part of their success, although he has no idea.
He just thinks that he's making icing.
Well, what keeps you motivated, though, like - Ten years.
- People, I'm a people person.
It's a great company.
- And I have five kids.
- Oh, wow.
Yeah.
So, you know a little bit about the competition and I'm competing to win $250,000.
If you were in my shoes and you were destined to win that $250,000, what would you do with it? Maybe you wouldn't open anything.
I think I would really try to get my mom better care.
- She has sarcoidosis.
- What's that? Like a type of inflammation.
It's like a breathing disease.
She's, like, my everything.
She's my hero.
Anthony just really embodies a passion for what he does.
He's been making my icing since I've been selling icing for Nestlé Toll House.
I wish he knew that it was for me.
I wish he knew the impact that he's had on me today.
He's very special.
I have some more stuff to show you.
- Okay.
- I need you to come with me.
- All right.
- Mm-hmm.
(announcer) Coming up I wish I had more support from the corporate offices.
(announcer) How will the boss handle a frustrated franchisee when she comes face-to-face with the truth? They are supposed to go through a month's training and I had a week's worth of training.
(announcer) And later Corporate is everywhere.
Always watching.
Yeah.
These guys right up here.
They are Big Brother.
(announcer) She discovers her recipe for success is starting to crumble.
The VP of the company watches the cameras for fun.
I'm [exhales.]
[upbeat music.]
(Shawnon) Today, I'm in Athens, Alabama in one of our franchise locations.
I'm excited to be at this café because it's one of our locations that has a drive-thru.
I've never seen actually how the drive-thru works, and I really know nothing about it.
Thank you.
Y'all have a great day.
So I'm looking to see if the drive-thru is something that we want to do more of in our concept.
What up, what up! - Good morning! - I'm K.
J.
- I'm Bridgette.
- Bridgette, nice to meet you.
So glad you're here.
I was, uh, very annoyed when I walked up today because the closed sign was on.
- What time you open? - We open at 12:00.
Okay.
There's a missed opportunity with a drive-thru right next door that serves coffee and breakfast items.
We too serve coffee and breakfast items, so we should be open for business.
Um, we have our regular chocolate chip cookies, we also our snicker doodle, and then we just have our regular sugar cookies.
- Those are pretty.
- Yes, I love red.
I mean, really, my favorite color is yellow, so this is, like, definitely the perfect job.
Okay, and so the drive-thru Our speaker's actually broken.
- Okay.
- But it will beep.
- It'll let you know.
- Okay.
And they'll come up to the window and they will tell you what they want.
That must be hard, to be here and to be there.
And oh, yes, definitely.
You're just walking back in circles.
So I'll show you how to work the register.
You are gonna press, "New invoice.
" The speaker was broken.
To me, it's not okay.
Don't want to leave something wrong and then just put a Band-Aid on it.
It annoys me, because we have systems and standards in place for the drive-thru.
So that's not the solution.
[beeps.]
That beeping noise is actually someone's in the drive-thru right now.
Oh, they're reading? Yes, they're reading everything they want.
- Oh, they sure are.
- Yes.
Here they come.
- Hello.
- Hi, there.
Can I get a regular vanilla latte, please? Anything else for you today, ma'am? - That'll be it.
- Okay.
I'll be right back with your order.
We have the buddy guide there.
It's pretty self-explanatory.
And then you're going to get vanilla, and you're going to hit this it stirs it up and kind of mixes it.
Here you are, ma'am.
Would you like any napkins or anything with this today? - Um, yes.
- Here you are.
- Okay, have a great day.
- Thank you, you, too, ma'am.
[beeps.]
And I am going to let you get this all by yourself, okay? [laughs nervously.]
Hi, there.
Welcome to, uh, Nestlé Nestlé Toll House Café.
Uh, can I have two chocolate chip cookies, please? Two chocolate chip? I've never worked a drive-thru in my entire life, whether it's fast food or anything, so this could get a little scary today.
Here you are.
- Thank you so much.
- Thank you.
How are y'all doing today? - Hi, there.
- Hey.
- How're you? - I just want an iced coffee.
Okay.
- Is this gonna be all for y'all today? - Yes.
Bridgette, I got to do the iced vanilla latte? Okay.
- Yep.
- I'll follow it.
[agitated music.]
Remember, K.
J.
, you're working at a drive-thru.
One of the things that K.
J.
did not do that well was just speed.
It doesn't fit.
That one, up there? - Did you get that one? - No, I got it over there.
Oh, yeah, those that one.
She's just trying to get too ahead of herself.
- She needs to breathe.
- Hi, there.
- I've got frappés.
- Mm-hmm.
Turtle and, uh You said turtle frap no, Butterfinger.
Oh, I forgot something.
No, I didn't.
Did I forget anything? No, I didn't.
I didn't forget, did I? She was just she's pretty slow.
We got to we got to pick it up a little bit.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[car honks.]
Oh, they're honking.
I mean, down here in the south, we talk slow, but that doesn't mean you have to work slow, and she needs to pick up the pace a little bit.
It's 104 and 105.
They should have it out.
Working the drive-thru it's challenging.
Especially if you're working the store by yourself, you're all over the place.
[car honks.]
Here you are.
I'm getting a lot of orders for frappés and one thing I noticed here is they actually don't have our our current recipe in place.
I had one of my field operations team in here about a month ago, and I'm surprised to learn that they're executing the wrong smoothies.
- Here you are.
- Look at that.
Thank you.
So how did you like the drive-thru? - I was a little nervous - Really? Talking to them.
I could tell you were a little nervous, but I think you did a really good job overall.
Okay, good.
How long have you been here? Five years.
Five years this month, actually.
Oh, wow.
Are you in school here? Well, I originally went to Troy University, which is about four hours south of here.
And I was diagnosed with Graves' disease.
What is that? What's Graves' disease? It's hyperthyroidism and it affected everything.
I don't really know how to explain it, 'cause I might you know, I might tear up because it's really sad.
I decided I was gonna move back here after I got sick because my doctors were close by.
Oh, everybody's here? Yes, well, except for my brother.
- Except for your brother.
- See, I have a twin brother.
- Oh, you do? - Yes.
Yeah, so, he goes University of Alabama, actually.
Oh, really? Yeah, so we're kind of far apart.
It just really hurts my heart, because, you know, twins you're being raised together - All the time.
- Right.
It just sucks.
I'm back here now.
How does that impact you though, every day? Does it? It doesn't anymore, because it's kind of under control.
But at first, I couldn't I had to take the year off, pretty much, so I'm behind in school, and I have to come back here and work.
I mean, I love this place, don't get me wrong, but I wanted to this is not where I saw myself.
Where did you want to be? I wanted to be graduating college, 'cause I wanna go into marketing Oh.
But I want to do something where I could open my own franchise by the time I was, like, 27, 28.
You want to do a Nestlé Toll House too? Yeah, I want to have my own franchise.
Good for you.
(Shawnon) What I found in Bridgette that's a lot like me, is she only takes yes for an answer.
She only wants to win, that's it.
It doesn't matter what it takes.
It doesn't matter how hard she needs to work.
I wish I could just put her in a box and put her on the plane with me and just take her back.
- Hi, guys.
- Hi.
- How are you doing today? - How are you? Good.
K.
J.
, this is Sascha.
Sascha, this is K.
J.
- Hi.
I'm the owner.
- Nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you.
How are you doing today? Good.
I've never been to this café, but the franchise owner actually knows me personally.
K.
J.
is actually the contestant that I'm training so she could open her own pie store.
I've met Sascha at our national our annual convention in March, so hopefully I'm not discovered.
How are you liking it? - It's a lot of work.
- It is a lot of work.
Do you like the customer part of it? Yeah, I like the interaction.
I'm just a little overwhelmed on the financial side of it.
You know, if I win this, what do I do? Well, find the storefront that has good trafficking.
Being a street café and not in a mall - like everybody else is - Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's harder to do like everybody else, 'cause I don't sell to the mall.
I don't open at 5:00 in the morning, they can't smell my coffee.
There's a lot of things I wish I'd had that I don't have.
More support from the corporate offices, since I am a franchise owner.
They are supposed to go through a month's training and I had a week's worth of training, so I'm having to learn a lot all on my own.
Do you understand it now? Not really.
I'm still learning.
I want to learn all I can to do it, 'cause I would love to be able to sell the Nestlé brand.
You know, I just want to do it to the best of my ability.
Sascha has a passion for this brand, and you can see that.
She's telling me and sharing with me that she didn't have the training that she feels that she needs to effectively run the café.
She feels kind of like she's on an island out here by herself without the support of corporate, and that's my fault.
[dramatic music.]
Today I'm in Houston, Texas, working with one of our café general managers.
The Houston market is one of the largest markets we have in the U.
S.
We have 17 cafés here with three under construction, so their success is very important to the brand.
After working with Bridgette and Sascha yesterday, it was very disappointing to find out that they're not getting the support that they need.
So I'm hoping to find that this location is running smoothly.
Hello! Hi, I'm Roberto.
Nice to meet you.
Very nice to meet you.
I can get you right over here.
If you want to come through our doors right over here, - we got a lot to learn today.
- I'm so excited.
All right.
Show you how to decorate some cookie cake, lots of fun.
This is a book sent by corporate.
It shows you how to decorate each cake.
Can I do this one? What do we want to write on there? Happy birthday to who? I'll do "Happy Birthday, Michael.
" You want to go first? Oh, goodness.
Well, looking all right so far.
Could do a little better.
I'm horrible at writing.
And trying to write "Happy Birthday, Michael" isn't an easy task for me.
Okay, this is the dinosaur? You need to draw your dinosaur.
Oh, Lord.
I'ma start on mine.
I'll be one step behind, but I'm sure I'll finish before you.
Uh-oh.
That that dinosaur right there looks like he's already extinct.
She chose to do a dinosaur, which I don't think was her best option, because it looked like the meteorite already hit it.
Yeah, you're gonna want to learn that speed and of course, make it look good.
- My first one! - Yeah, pretty good.
But you're gonna want Michael to be able to read his name when he blows out his candles.
I think that poor boy Michael probably would have wanted my cake over hers.
This is how we do the cookie cake slices.
You'll cut it into eighths and make sure they're as even as possible.
Okay.
It looks like you get really close.
I have had a vision problem since I was young.
I'm almost legally blind.
I have a 21/50 vision with corrective lenses.
Oh, no.
How do you do it? How do see to decorate? I just adapted.
I mean I obviously get a little closer than I guess most people will, but it's just something I've adapted to in my life.
If I ever wanted to go about one day getting the LASIK to give myself more normal glasses, it won't correct the vision but just normal glasses it would be probably a pretty expensive task to take on.
It's very inspiring to see Roberto and what he does.
How can you decorate that well? Decorating class.
Once you learn the basics, you can do anything.
Definitely my next step would definitely want to get into pastry school.
It really puts things into perspective, that really if you try, you can do anything you want to do.
How many products do you have? We do have a lot.
We have a variety we don't keep everything out in the case at once.
Sometimes here, we don't have items in stock.
Right now, we are out of our cups and our triple chocolate chip cookies.
What did you say? When I placed my order last week, they told me they were out of stock and then this week they also said they were back-ordered still.
Having one flavor of cookie not show up at the cafés and not being able to be baked and presented to the guest is huge and I don't know why he's out.
I'm pretty sure if someone from corporate came up and saw I didn't have 'em, then I'm sure I'd get in trouble.
It's one of our required items to have out.
I'm s I'm beyond frustrated right now because we only have seven Toll House cookies, only seven.
They make up all of our recipes, and so to be out of one, it's a big deal.
Our Nestlé Toll House cups I have been trying to order them for a few weeks and they haven't been coming in.
He's out of cups.
Our logo'd cups.
These this is our brand.
It is something very important that we do need in the store.
So what else do you do if you don't have cups? Just we'd have to use, like, a plain or non-logo cup.
Sometimes I do feel like maybe we're the forgotten stepchild around here.
This is not his fault.
It's ours.
It's mine, and I'm going right now and I'm gonna get to the bottom of why we're out of product.
I'll be right back.
[phone trills.]
(woman) Good morning.
I was told that there was no shortages at all in the Houston market, and they're telling me that they're out of the triple chocolate cookies.
Tell me what's happening.
(Sharon) Okay, I will specifically call him as well as shoot him a 911 email.
So what happens if I'm out of product, that means my distribution center's out of product, and it's not just one store that won't get a product.
That means I don't have any in Houston.
I need to fix it today.
I need to find the solution so the café has product.
If that means that we need to push some product on the east coast, then we need to do that today.
- (Sharon) Okay.
- Bye.
[dramatic music.]
(Shawnon) This is the last stop on my journey.
So far, I've seen a lot of things that are slipping through the cracks and need to be fixed.
Today I'm in one of our company locations in Westland, Michigan, and I'm gonna work alongside one of our corporate GMs.
There's five corporate locations in our system.
This is the worst performing out of the five that we have.
Hey, folks, how are you doing today? Recently, I relocated the GM of this café from a more successful café in Philadelphia.
I need to see how we can fix this problem because our corporate locations are a vital part of our growth strategy.
- Hello.
- What's up? - K.
J.
- Adriana.
- Nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you too.
- How you doing? - Very good.
What are we doing today? We're getting you back here and we're putting you to work.
Here is your hat and apron.
All right, so today we're gonna focus on customer service.
Your customer is your life blood.
Okay.
- Hi.
- Hi.
- Can I have a chocolate chip? - Sure.
All right, so I'm gonna show you how to do the register real quick.
When you find a thing in the register right here chocolate chip it comes up.
It does the tax for you, it does all the math for you.
Total's down here, so read them their total.
$1.
79.
Print and process.
Faster, faster, faster, faster.
There you go.
- Thank you.
- Have a great day, guys.
Thank you.
You too.
You hitched? No.
No.
Uh, my boyfriend still lives in Philly.
- Mm.
- Yeah.
I got transferred out here about a month ago.
We lived together for a year and we moved to a new place and we were in our new place for all of two months before we before I had to leave.
Oh, it sucked.
So the next couple customers, I'm gonna have you ring.
Okay.
Speed of service is really, really important.
We have about 45 seconds to a minute per guest.
You must do.
That you have to greet, serve, ring up.
We're under pressure from corporate because we have sales to make, and if we don't make our goals, then we get reprimanded.
Okay.
Adriana talked about the 45 second mentality, which I was pleased to find out because that's our that's our standard.
I implemented this rule to increase efficiency and maximize profits in all of our cafés.
This is all your show.
Oh Hi, hi.
- Okay, you got to make it fast.
- What would you like? I would like to get your two cookies and one drink.
And a drink.
You'll get your drink.
- 45 seconds.
- Oh, no, no, no.
One minute.
I'm sweating now.
I'm sweating.
$14.
84.
Oh - Thank you so much.
- Thank you.
Two minutes and five seconds.
Ah! All right, come on.
Every guest, every guest, every guest.
Okay, I'm ready.
Hi, how are you? Three chocolate chip cookies.
You want chocolate chip? - Yes.
- 30 seconds.
Every time she's after me.
45 seconds, 45 seconds.
And I'm not sure if I hit one today.
- Thank you very much.
- Thank you.
Minute, 15.
You're getting a little better.
- Now do it twice as fast.
- I have to take a break.
A break? You have a line.
I'm guilty of putting high standards on myself, so then in turn, I actually end up putting them in the café as well.
I may have set them up to fail or unrealistic goals, and that came from me.
When I get back, it's one of the things I'm gonna address immediately.
I want to revisit that 45 second turnover for a guest.
Is it enough time for them to talk to the guest, to get to know them a bit before they actually serve them? - You enjoy your day, guys.
- Thank you.
- Thank you.
- Bye.
So we just helped a bunch of customers, right? - Yep.
- How quickly did we do that? - Pretty fast? - Pretty fast, yeah.
If we were audited, way too long.
And your boss tells you that? Well, we get audited through our camera systems.
Okay.
Yeah, these guys right up here.
So it sees, like, everything we put in the register.
It shows up on the thing so it sees, like, when the person came up, how fast we helped them, and then how much they were on their way, so we get random audits throughout the month.
Corporate is everywhere.
Always.
Always watching.
Ever vigilant.
They are Big Brother.
You can access a live feed from those cameras.
The VP of the company watches the cameras for fun.
[exhales sharply.]
She will make dinner, open up her laptop and leave the feed running to see if we're breaking down early.
I have gotten an email at 9:00 in the morning.
"Why didn't you make goal yesterday?" I don't know, there wasn't anybody here.
Like, "You need to work that you're making goal.
Why was your drawer $10 short?" I didn't close.
And they're like, "You need to find out.
You're the manager.
"You're responsible.
"You need to be in charge of every single aspect of your business.
" She talked about the VP of operations, which I was before where I am today, uh, putting up her laptop while she's making dinner for her family and watching the cafés.
Seems really unrealistic, but she's telling the truth, 'cause there's times I do watch what's going on in the cafés, but it shouldn't come across as though you're watching because you're waiting for someone to do something wrong.
It's unfair to Adriana to feel that way.
And I feel like she doesn't think we trust her.
And I don't think that's right.
Corporate is always watching.
Always watching.
Seems like a pain in the ass.
Oh, yeah.
They're constantly here.
And it's not just me that thinks the VP of the company is intimidating.
Everyone is afraid of her.
When the VP of the company shows up at your front counter and the 16-year-old you have running the register sees her, do you know what happens? They freeze.
She scares the living daylights out of your employees and then they can't work well.
So part of being a GM is getting things up to par, so that you don't need corporate breathing down your neck at all times.
I don't want to give that impression.
I want them to be able to talk to me.
I want them to be able to tell me what's going on in the café.
I want them to share ideas with me.
I need to find a way where they could open up and talk to me and not be afraid of Shawnon Bellah, COO.
What can we get for you? [somber music.]
Well, going into this, I thought it would be great for the company and I've taken that away for sure.
I think that not only did I learn about how the company can improve, but I've also learned that my approach needs to change.
I'm tough on myself.
I'm tough on those around me.
But what I fail to do is to let the caring that I have for those individuals actually even shine through.
[phone rings.]
(girl) Hi.
Hey, guys, how are you? This is hard for me because I'm not really an emotional leader or parent.
I know I have such high expectations for you.
I know that I need to stop, relax sometimes, because I don't want you to walk away and go off to college thinking, "Man, Mom was just tough all the time.
" I know I'm teaching them leadership, and I know I'm teaching them how to work hard.
I also want to make sure they're still having fun.
[sniffs.]
I love you guys so much.
(children) We love you too.
[dramatic music.]
(announcer) Coming up the employees think they're going to decide if K.
J.
deserves to win her own business.
How will they react when she reveals her true identity? You're a liar.
What up? I'm K.
J.
Pretty sure I told you you were terrifying.
[upbeat music.]
We are saying good-bye to Kristy.
I learned a lot about the cafés and the people that touch our brand.
I also learned a lot about myself.
I need to show more gratitude.
I need to be more grateful to those around me, and impact my company the way that I know it needs to be impacted.
- How are you? - Good, how are you? Good.
Tell me about Kristy.
- Um, not too great.
- [laughs.]
She definitely struggled.
I need to tell you something.
What up? I'm K.
J.
- No, you're a liar.
- [laughs.]
Wow, you fooled me there.
- My name is Shawnon Bellah - Oh.
And I'm actually the COO - Okay.
- For Nestlé Toll House Café.
You played me.
[laughs.]
Have you heard of "Undercover Boss"? I am kind of speechless right now.
I'm on "Undercover Boss.
" Oh, my goodness.
Pretty sure I told you you were terrifying.
- I think you used those words.
- Yeah.
I don't know how to handle this right now.
I apologize for calling you terrifying.
You do not owe me an apology.
Okay.
Am I too demanding? You can be a little bit overbearing.
Adriana, you can help me.
You really can.
If you're honest.
And for someone who's very confident you know everything about the business that you're in Right.
I'm not as good as I thought I was.
One thing you continued to push me on - was the 45-second rule.
- Service.
- 45 seconds.
- Oh, no, no, no.
One minute.
- Minute, 15.
- Oh, no.
I'm sweating.
Do you think it's realistic? No, not at all.
I'd like for you to work with me on identifying what is the speed of service.
- What's proper.
- Yeah.
You're fantastic at teaching others.
I'd like to actually put you through - some management training.
- What? [both laugh.]
I'm flattered that somebody thinks that I'm worth investing in.
Thank you.
I see something in you, and the reason I relocated you, is because you can be more to us than a GM.
[sniffles.]
You left your boyfriend.
I want to give you $20,000.
[sobs.]
I want you to use that money to fly each month to see your boyfriend.
Thank you.
Yeah.
[laughs.]
(Adriana) It is really gonna be awesome that I get to see my boyfriend at least once a month, 'cause it's really hard I'm sorry.
Anthony, your passion for what you do every day It was very contagious.
Thank you.
You're gonna make your first batch.
Oh, my Lord.
I mean, honestly I'm I'm really excited.
They say, "Kudos!" I'm good to go! One thing that you don't know is, the icing that we use comes strictly from your manufacturing plant.
Oh, wow.
Hey, that's my stuff.
That's the good stuff, you know? Wow.
I want to have a dessert happy hour, dessert party.
For your entire team at CSM, because I want you guys to know where your product goes.
That would be outstanding.
They would really appreciate that.
When I got to have a chance to get to know you, you were talking about the Yankees.
But you also told me you've never been to a game.
One day I'll make it to a game.
I want us to get together our families to get together, and go to a Yankees game.
[gasps.]
Are you serious? Wow! [laughs.]
That's what's up.
You all right.
You are all right.
I appreciate that.
You've inspired me with your passion.
Thank you.
I'm glad I was able to do so.
Your stories about your family and your mom - and you have five children.
- Yes.
That's a lot of responsibility to step up.
It is.
It is.
I'd like to give you - $15,000.
- Are you serious? Oh, wow.
[crying.]
Thank you so much.
Oh, wow.
- Will that help you? - Thank you, yes.
It will.
Thank you so much.
You are a blessing in disguise.
You really are.
I'm ecstatic.
I'm really ecstatic.
I cannot believe this happened to me.
Me, of all people? Are you serious? Wow.
I mean, I'm I'm blessed.
I'm truly blessed.
Thank you so much.
Thank you so much.
Well, Roberto, you show a lot of pride in your product.
Thank you.
Uh-oh, that dinosaur looks like he's already extinct.
During that inventory process, you said that you were out of The triple chocolate chip cookie.
I'm gonna work with the distributor.
I'm gonna make sure those things are in stock.
If you ever face this problem again, I want you to call me directly.
Thank you.
[laughs.]
One thing I'm amazed by you is you're able to put out an amazing cookie cake.
Thank you.
You talked to me about a LASIK surgery that you could have.
I'm gonna get the best care for your eyes, and I'm going to pay for it.
I can't believe this.
Sorry.
Thank you.
That's all I can say right now.
I was amazed by your talent.
And I'd like to give you $25,000, and I want you to go to pastry school.
Oh, wow.
Thank you.
This is amazing.
We are so proud to have you on our team.
Thank you.
I'm proud to be on it.
I'm super excited.
I'm super thankful.
I've had my vision like this all my life, so, I mean, it's gonna definitely be an improvement, no matter what happens.
My dinosaur will be better next time, I promise.
I believe it.
I believe it.
I now have the money to go to pastry school.
Never would imagine this in my life.
Bridgette.
You are truly one of the best brand ambassadors that we have in our entire company.
Thank you so much.
That means a lot to me.
My favorite color is yellow, so, I mean, this is, like, definitely the perfect job.
There are some things that I did notice in the store.
I want to go through those with you.
Okay.
But before I do, I want to bring somebody else in.
- How are you? - Good afternoon.
I'm so glad you're here.
When I first walked into that café You know, I haven't been there.
Right.
- And that's a shame.
- Yeah.
Because we take you for granted.
- Sorry.
- It's okay.
As a little bitty store in the middle of nowhere, we're just kind of out here all by ourselves.
What I'd like to do is send you to Dallas, all expenses paid, to go through training.
It'll cover everything that you need to know that we didn't teach you the first time.
Okay.
I want to give you $20,000 to bring your café up to our current standards, so it's something you can be proud of, - so we're giving you $10,000 - Thank you.
To build a marketing campaign focused completely on your café.
That's awesome.
I would like that.
(Sascha) I finally get to put my passion into my business where it needs to be instead of being stressed out over where the funds are gonna come from day-to-day.
It's more than I could ever hope for.
Having the opportunity to actually to work with you.
- It was just amazing.
- Good.
[laughs.]
I'm gonna use you to shoot corporate training videos to utilize across our entire brand.
[gasps.]
Okay.
- I'm gonna pay you for that.
- Thank you.
Thank you.
I want the world to see what I saw.
That means a lot.
To hear you talk about your brother Mm-hmm.
How often do you see him? Not very often.
We don't really get to see each other.
I want to give you $10,000.
And I want you to take him with you to an all-expense-paid vacation to Hawaii Thank you so much.
And I want you to enjoy it.
Thank you so much.
I can't wait.
You told me that one of your dreams was to become one of my franchisees.
Yes, I would love to have my own franchise.
Absolutely love it.
I'm gonna give you $170,000 towards opening your own Nestlé Toll House Café when you're ready.
Okay.
Thank you.
Feel like I'm in a dream.
I don't feel like this is real.
I'll be honored to see you succeed.
It would mean the world to me.
Thank you so much.
I'm really just thinking that there's no way this is actually happening to to me.
Once I got sick, I put all my dreams and hopes on hold and now that Shawnon's given me this opportunity, I am back to where I wanted to be.
I'm gonna own my own franchise.
Thank you so much.
And I'm just still beyond words.
I'm so excited and my heart is just filled with so much happiness right now.
[inspiring music.]
Your eyebrows are on fleek.
Do I say that? Don't do that.
Don't do that.
(announcer) By joining her employees on the front lines All right, good job.
Let's get it, go.
Oh, my lord.
(announcer) This tough leader This is like torture.
(announcer) Will meet the people who keep her company on the rise.
We got to pick it up a little bit.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Oh, I forgot something.
(announcer) While undercover, she'll get lost in the mix.
(man) There you go.
Put some back into it.
That dinosaur looks like he's already extinct.
I wish I had more support from the corporate offices.
(announcer) And what will happen when she finds out that her leadership style is burning the batch? They told me they were out of stock.
I'm pretty sure if someone from corporate came up and saw I didn't have 'em, then I'm sure I'd get in trouble.
We get audited through our camera systems.
The VP of the company will make dinner, open up her laptop and leave the feed running.
Corporate is everywhere.
They are Big Brother.
(announcer) Find out next on "Undercover Boss.
" [upbeat music.]
(announcer) Headquartered in Richardson, Texas, Nestlé Toll House Café by Chip is a string of dessert cafés based on the iconic Nestlé Toll House cookie.
With 147 locations and 1,600 employees Here you are.
(announcer) This fast-growing chain is rising to the top.
Making sure the future stays sweet is one woman.
I want everyone across the world to be able to say that they've tasted a Toll House cookie, and it is the best cookie that they have ever tasted.
[upbeat music.]
My name is Shawnon Bellah, and I'm chief operating officer for Nestlé Toll House Café by Chip.
The foundation of our product is the Toll House cookie.
It has a nostalgia about it.
They're warm, they're homey.
I mean, that cookie just it brings families together.
The company licensed its name from Nestlé in 1998, and opened shop in the year 2000.
The brand grew its revenues moderately to around $20 million with 60 locations.
I joined in 2008 and we grew to nearly 150 locations with more than $55 million in revenue.
Last year alone, we sold over 17 million cookies.
Six months ago, I was promoted to COO and we're focused on dominating the cookie market.
We should be a $500 million company.
That's our goal.
This goal will be accomplished.
Thank you.
What makes me different is I didn't come straight from college into a board room and do this job.
I knew by not having a degree that the only way that I would be able to excel was to work harder and faster than those around me.
And that's exactly what I did.
When I became Vice President of Operations in 2010, I developed all the manuals, developed the recipe books, the training practices, for the entire company.
It took about 70 days for me to change the trend of the business.
We were negative for nine months straight.
Ever since then, we have had positive sales, positive growth, and that is why I was promoted COO this year.
I'm involved in every aspect of the company.
Okay, so the feedback last year was that you couldn't taste the pumpkin.
So what'd you guys do? Just added more pumpkin spice? We added a little bit more pumpkin spice.
Okay, what else? My team members will tell you that I'm a tough boss.
I have high standards for myself.
Therefore, I have high standards for them.
Thank you, guys.
And also, as COO of this company, I'm heavily involved in our corporate locations.
We utilize our corporate cafés to test menu items, training standards, before they actually roll out to everyone.
I have the technology so that I can see these corporate locations from my computer and see how their business is actually doing.
Whenever you come onboard here, there has to be a passion for the brand.
You have to be a brand ambassador in everything that you do.
And I need to keep pushing to make sure that they are.
I'm running one of the top but I also have a responsibility at home as a single mom.
How are ya? - Yay.
- Good.
I've been divorced now for two years.
I have two children.
Show me the cheer that you guys learned today.
Okay.
We'll rise to the top Very nice.
I am a very strict parent.
The list I left this morning.
How did you guys do? Bethany? I finished everything except for my algebra.
So you're gonna work on that now? Yes.
I push them.
I challenge them to be better.
I'm teaching them what it takes to win.
How's that coming? Good.
- Hey.
- Hi, how are you? Good.
I'm thinking blonde.
I've never been blonde before.
Maybe some tight curls.
- Can it be done? - Oh, definitely.
(Shawnon) Since coming on as COO, we've sold over 80 franchise locations.
But I want to insure that we're setting ourselves up to continue to grow.
I want to go undercover to really find out what's going on in the cafés.
In order for us to set ourselves apart, we have to deliver an exceptional experience over and over again.
While undercover, I'll be posing as Kristy, also known as K.
J.
My employees will think I'm on a reality TV show, trying to win $250,000 to open my own baking business.
I'm so well-known in this company I'm going to have a drastic disguise.
I've dyed my hair - No way.
- Voilà .
I've changed my eye color, and I have a complete new wardrobe.
Let's do this.
[playful music.]
Surprise.
- [laughter.]
- Mom.
So, what do you think? Oh, my.
I need some pointers from you guys.
How do I act cool? Do I just kind of do, like, a sway, like this? - Don't sway.
- Don't do that.
Do I talk like, "Hey, dude.
" No.
- Hey.
- Yo, brah.
Your eyebrows are on fleek.
Do I say that? 'Cause I heard your friends say that.
Sure.
- Bye.
- Love you.
Love you too.
I don't know what tomorrow will hold, but I'm ready for it.
- Bye.
- Love you.
[lively guitar music.]
(Shawnon) Today I'm in Tucker, Georgia and I'm visiting the CSM Bakery Solutions manufacturing plant.
This is one of our third-party manufacturing plants that actually supplies us with all our icings.
I've never been to the icing facility before.
Hi, I'm here to see Anthony today.
But to deliver a fantastic cookie cake, you have to great icing to go with it.
That sets us apart from our competitors.
- Hey, how's it going? - Hi, how are you? - Anthony.
I'm good.
I'm fine.
- Kristy Jones.
I'm so excited to work with you today.
You're gonna have a great time.
Let's go ahead and get suited up so we can get to business.
Okay.
Thank you.
(Anthony) My first impression just by looking at her, I was like, "Wow, she's very attractive.
" She doesn't look like she's built for manual labor in this facility.
Well, let's go ahead and get started.
All right.
[intense guitar music.]
- We make a lot of icing.
- You can smell the sugar.
Exactly.
And you've worked here for how long now? - Ten years.
- Wow.
That product that they're making right now is cream cheese icing.
- Oh.
- Yes.
The majority of this line consists of a lot of ingredients being put in.
The most important thing is you follow your recipe.
Now you want to hold that secure.
Has a little weight to it.
You just want to pour it down in there.
Real slowly.
- Yes.
- How's that? Yes, it's looking good.
Looking real good.
You make it easy.
So this is where you're gonna make your first batch.
Oh, my Lord.
I mean, honestly I'm I'm really excited, because, you know, I never really got a chance to just watch anybody work, but they say, "Kudos!" I'm good to go, man, what's happening? Okay, so, cream cheese.
I hope you slept good last night.
All right, good job.
Let's get it, go! - All right.
- Oh, my God! Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! Baby, take it easy.
You got to put your back into it.
Oh, my God.
Oh, yeah, you're gonna sleep good tonight.
All right, good job.
Good job.
There you go Put your back into it.
Oh, I'm loving this.
- Ah! - Yeah, that's a workout.
K.
J.
probably didn't think that making icing was as extreme as it was.
- All right, now, let's roll.
- I got it! - There we go.
- Ah! She gave me a look today like, "Oh, wow, you guys do this for eight hours?" [sighs.]
Oh, my God.
Uh, exactly.
I don't know about you, but I'm a I'm a Yankee fan.
So, uh, it's almost batter up.
- So you like the Yankees? - Yeah.
Do you ever see 'em? No, unfortunately, I haven't.
Never seen 'em.
Okay, our next batch.
- No! Another batch? - Oh, yeah.
Oh, my Lord.
- You all right? - Yeah, I got it.
Okay.
Oh, my Lord.
(Shawnon) Getting back there and seeing how our product is made, I'm struggling.
- Let's go.
- Ah! I'm lifting 50-pound bags of this stuff and you have to work fast.
We got people downstairs.
They're a little angry at you.
- Oh, no! - Waiting on this product.
It's demanding physically.
Look at the bright side.
You only got five left.
Mentally, I can't hear a thing.
I'm hot.
Whoa! It's tough.
It's very tough.
- You all right? - Yeah.
You ready for 12 more? Yeah.
[laughs.]
Well, if all you do is smile, it helps, does it? [laughs.]
I'm super excited that Anthony is responsible for the icing that goes to our stores You just made a great batch.
I'ma give you a taste test downstairs.
Okay.
(Shawnon) Because I know that it's been made with care.
It's recipe right, and he does it with a smile.
Here we go.
The good stuff.
You're tasting your work.
- Wow.
- Oh, it's beautiful, isn't it? Oh, my gosh.
This icing that we made today is for? We really don't know well, I really don't know I'll say.
I would love to know who gets the product.
Interesting.
Once I put my best foot forward of making this product, you know, it really means a lot to me, you know? I give a lot of effort towards batch-making, and this is it's a great experience and it's a great product.
(Shawnon) Anthony loves the product that he's making.
He has no idea who's selling it.
It's much more than just going into the tubs for us, because that icing impacts the lives of our franchise partners.
and he's a part of their success, although he has no idea.
He just thinks that he's making icing.
Well, what keeps you motivated, though, like - Ten years.
- People, I'm a people person.
It's a great company.
- And I have five kids.
- Oh, wow.
Yeah.
So, you know a little bit about the competition and I'm competing to win $250,000.
If you were in my shoes and you were destined to win that $250,000, what would you do with it? Maybe you wouldn't open anything.
I think I would really try to get my mom better care.
- She has sarcoidosis.
- What's that? Like a type of inflammation.
It's like a breathing disease.
She's, like, my everything.
She's my hero.
Anthony just really embodies a passion for what he does.
He's been making my icing since I've been selling icing for Nestlé Toll House.
I wish he knew that it was for me.
I wish he knew the impact that he's had on me today.
He's very special.
I have some more stuff to show you.
- Okay.
- I need you to come with me.
- All right.
- Mm-hmm.
(announcer) Coming up I wish I had more support from the corporate offices.
(announcer) How will the boss handle a frustrated franchisee when she comes face-to-face with the truth? They are supposed to go through a month's training and I had a week's worth of training.
(announcer) And later Corporate is everywhere.
Always watching.
Yeah.
These guys right up here.
They are Big Brother.
(announcer) She discovers her recipe for success is starting to crumble.
The VP of the company watches the cameras for fun.
I'm [exhales.]
[upbeat music.]
(Shawnon) Today, I'm in Athens, Alabama in one of our franchise locations.
I'm excited to be at this café because it's one of our locations that has a drive-thru.
I've never seen actually how the drive-thru works, and I really know nothing about it.
Thank you.
Y'all have a great day.
So I'm looking to see if the drive-thru is something that we want to do more of in our concept.
What up, what up! - Good morning! - I'm K.
J.
- I'm Bridgette.
- Bridgette, nice to meet you.
So glad you're here.
I was, uh, very annoyed when I walked up today because the closed sign was on.
- What time you open? - We open at 12:00.
Okay.
There's a missed opportunity with a drive-thru right next door that serves coffee and breakfast items.
We too serve coffee and breakfast items, so we should be open for business.
Um, we have our regular chocolate chip cookies, we also our snicker doodle, and then we just have our regular sugar cookies.
- Those are pretty.
- Yes, I love red.
I mean, really, my favorite color is yellow, so this is, like, definitely the perfect job.
Okay, and so the drive-thru Our speaker's actually broken.
- Okay.
- But it will beep.
- It'll let you know.
- Okay.
And they'll come up to the window and they will tell you what they want.
That must be hard, to be here and to be there.
And oh, yes, definitely.
You're just walking back in circles.
So I'll show you how to work the register.
You are gonna press, "New invoice.
" The speaker was broken.
To me, it's not okay.
Don't want to leave something wrong and then just put a Band-Aid on it.
It annoys me, because we have systems and standards in place for the drive-thru.
So that's not the solution.
[beeps.]
That beeping noise is actually someone's in the drive-thru right now.
Oh, they're reading? Yes, they're reading everything they want.
- Oh, they sure are.
- Yes.
Here they come.
- Hello.
- Hi, there.
Can I get a regular vanilla latte, please? Anything else for you today, ma'am? - That'll be it.
- Okay.
I'll be right back with your order.
We have the buddy guide there.
It's pretty self-explanatory.
And then you're going to get vanilla, and you're going to hit this it stirs it up and kind of mixes it.
Here you are, ma'am.
Would you like any napkins or anything with this today? - Um, yes.
- Here you are.
- Okay, have a great day.
- Thank you, you, too, ma'am.
[beeps.]
And I am going to let you get this all by yourself, okay? [laughs nervously.]
Hi, there.
Welcome to, uh, Nestlé Nestlé Toll House Café.
Uh, can I have two chocolate chip cookies, please? Two chocolate chip? I've never worked a drive-thru in my entire life, whether it's fast food or anything, so this could get a little scary today.
Here you are.
- Thank you so much.
- Thank you.
How are y'all doing today? - Hi, there.
- Hey.
- How're you? - I just want an iced coffee.
Okay.
- Is this gonna be all for y'all today? - Yes.
Bridgette, I got to do the iced vanilla latte? Okay.
- Yep.
- I'll follow it.
[agitated music.]
Remember, K.
J.
, you're working at a drive-thru.
One of the things that K.
J.
did not do that well was just speed.
It doesn't fit.
That one, up there? - Did you get that one? - No, I got it over there.
Oh, yeah, those that one.
She's just trying to get too ahead of herself.
- She needs to breathe.
- Hi, there.
- I've got frappés.
- Mm-hmm.
Turtle and, uh You said turtle frap no, Butterfinger.
Oh, I forgot something.
No, I didn't.
Did I forget anything? No, I didn't.
I didn't forget, did I? She was just she's pretty slow.
We got to we got to pick it up a little bit.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[car honks.]
Oh, they're honking.
I mean, down here in the south, we talk slow, but that doesn't mean you have to work slow, and she needs to pick up the pace a little bit.
It's 104 and 105.
They should have it out.
Working the drive-thru it's challenging.
Especially if you're working the store by yourself, you're all over the place.
[car honks.]
Here you are.
I'm getting a lot of orders for frappés and one thing I noticed here is they actually don't have our our current recipe in place.
I had one of my field operations team in here about a month ago, and I'm surprised to learn that they're executing the wrong smoothies.
- Here you are.
- Look at that.
Thank you.
So how did you like the drive-thru? - I was a little nervous - Really? Talking to them.
I could tell you were a little nervous, but I think you did a really good job overall.
Okay, good.
How long have you been here? Five years.
Five years this month, actually.
Oh, wow.
Are you in school here? Well, I originally went to Troy University, which is about four hours south of here.
And I was diagnosed with Graves' disease.
What is that? What's Graves' disease? It's hyperthyroidism and it affected everything.
I don't really know how to explain it, 'cause I might you know, I might tear up because it's really sad.
I decided I was gonna move back here after I got sick because my doctors were close by.
Oh, everybody's here? Yes, well, except for my brother.
- Except for your brother.
- See, I have a twin brother.
- Oh, you do? - Yes.
Yeah, so, he goes University of Alabama, actually.
Oh, really? Yeah, so we're kind of far apart.
It just really hurts my heart, because, you know, twins you're being raised together - All the time.
- Right.
It just sucks.
I'm back here now.
How does that impact you though, every day? Does it? It doesn't anymore, because it's kind of under control.
But at first, I couldn't I had to take the year off, pretty much, so I'm behind in school, and I have to come back here and work.
I mean, I love this place, don't get me wrong, but I wanted to this is not where I saw myself.
Where did you want to be? I wanted to be graduating college, 'cause I wanna go into marketing Oh.
But I want to do something where I could open my own franchise by the time I was, like, 27, 28.
You want to do a Nestlé Toll House too? Yeah, I want to have my own franchise.
Good for you.
(Shawnon) What I found in Bridgette that's a lot like me, is she only takes yes for an answer.
She only wants to win, that's it.
It doesn't matter what it takes.
It doesn't matter how hard she needs to work.
I wish I could just put her in a box and put her on the plane with me and just take her back.
- Hi, guys.
- Hi.
- How are you doing today? - How are you? Good.
K.
J.
, this is Sascha.
Sascha, this is K.
J.
- Hi.
I'm the owner.
- Nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you.
How are you doing today? Good.
I've never been to this café, but the franchise owner actually knows me personally.
K.
J.
is actually the contestant that I'm training so she could open her own pie store.
I've met Sascha at our national our annual convention in March, so hopefully I'm not discovered.
How are you liking it? - It's a lot of work.
- It is a lot of work.
Do you like the customer part of it? Yeah, I like the interaction.
I'm just a little overwhelmed on the financial side of it.
You know, if I win this, what do I do? Well, find the storefront that has good trafficking.
Being a street café and not in a mall - like everybody else is - Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's harder to do like everybody else, 'cause I don't sell to the mall.
I don't open at 5:00 in the morning, they can't smell my coffee.
There's a lot of things I wish I'd had that I don't have.
More support from the corporate offices, since I am a franchise owner.
They are supposed to go through a month's training and I had a week's worth of training, so I'm having to learn a lot all on my own.
Do you understand it now? Not really.
I'm still learning.
I want to learn all I can to do it, 'cause I would love to be able to sell the Nestlé brand.
You know, I just want to do it to the best of my ability.
Sascha has a passion for this brand, and you can see that.
She's telling me and sharing with me that she didn't have the training that she feels that she needs to effectively run the café.
She feels kind of like she's on an island out here by herself without the support of corporate, and that's my fault.
[dramatic music.]
Today I'm in Houston, Texas, working with one of our café general managers.
The Houston market is one of the largest markets we have in the U.
S.
We have 17 cafés here with three under construction, so their success is very important to the brand.
After working with Bridgette and Sascha yesterday, it was very disappointing to find out that they're not getting the support that they need.
So I'm hoping to find that this location is running smoothly.
Hello! Hi, I'm Roberto.
Nice to meet you.
Very nice to meet you.
I can get you right over here.
If you want to come through our doors right over here, - we got a lot to learn today.
- I'm so excited.
All right.
Show you how to decorate some cookie cake, lots of fun.
This is a book sent by corporate.
It shows you how to decorate each cake.
Can I do this one? What do we want to write on there? Happy birthday to who? I'll do "Happy Birthday, Michael.
" You want to go first? Oh, goodness.
Well, looking all right so far.
Could do a little better.
I'm horrible at writing.
And trying to write "Happy Birthday, Michael" isn't an easy task for me.
Okay, this is the dinosaur? You need to draw your dinosaur.
Oh, Lord.
I'ma start on mine.
I'll be one step behind, but I'm sure I'll finish before you.
Uh-oh.
That that dinosaur right there looks like he's already extinct.
She chose to do a dinosaur, which I don't think was her best option, because it looked like the meteorite already hit it.
Yeah, you're gonna want to learn that speed and of course, make it look good.
- My first one! - Yeah, pretty good.
But you're gonna want Michael to be able to read his name when he blows out his candles.
I think that poor boy Michael probably would have wanted my cake over hers.
This is how we do the cookie cake slices.
You'll cut it into eighths and make sure they're as even as possible.
Okay.
It looks like you get really close.
I have had a vision problem since I was young.
I'm almost legally blind.
I have a 21/50 vision with corrective lenses.
Oh, no.
How do you do it? How do see to decorate? I just adapted.
I mean I obviously get a little closer than I guess most people will, but it's just something I've adapted to in my life.
If I ever wanted to go about one day getting the LASIK to give myself more normal glasses, it won't correct the vision but just normal glasses it would be probably a pretty expensive task to take on.
It's very inspiring to see Roberto and what he does.
How can you decorate that well? Decorating class.
Once you learn the basics, you can do anything.
Definitely my next step would definitely want to get into pastry school.
It really puts things into perspective, that really if you try, you can do anything you want to do.
How many products do you have? We do have a lot.
We have a variety we don't keep everything out in the case at once.
Sometimes here, we don't have items in stock.
Right now, we are out of our cups and our triple chocolate chip cookies.
What did you say? When I placed my order last week, they told me they were out of stock and then this week they also said they were back-ordered still.
Having one flavor of cookie not show up at the cafés and not being able to be baked and presented to the guest is huge and I don't know why he's out.
I'm pretty sure if someone from corporate came up and saw I didn't have 'em, then I'm sure I'd get in trouble.
It's one of our required items to have out.
I'm s I'm beyond frustrated right now because we only have seven Toll House cookies, only seven.
They make up all of our recipes, and so to be out of one, it's a big deal.
Our Nestlé Toll House cups I have been trying to order them for a few weeks and they haven't been coming in.
He's out of cups.
Our logo'd cups.
These this is our brand.
It is something very important that we do need in the store.
So what else do you do if you don't have cups? Just we'd have to use, like, a plain or non-logo cup.
Sometimes I do feel like maybe we're the forgotten stepchild around here.
This is not his fault.
It's ours.
It's mine, and I'm going right now and I'm gonna get to the bottom of why we're out of product.
I'll be right back.
[phone trills.]
(woman) Good morning.
I was told that there was no shortages at all in the Houston market, and they're telling me that they're out of the triple chocolate cookies.
Tell me what's happening.
(Sharon) Okay, I will specifically call him as well as shoot him a 911 email.
So what happens if I'm out of product, that means my distribution center's out of product, and it's not just one store that won't get a product.
That means I don't have any in Houston.
I need to fix it today.
I need to find the solution so the café has product.
If that means that we need to push some product on the east coast, then we need to do that today.
- (Sharon) Okay.
- Bye.
[dramatic music.]
(Shawnon) This is the last stop on my journey.
So far, I've seen a lot of things that are slipping through the cracks and need to be fixed.
Today I'm in one of our company locations in Westland, Michigan, and I'm gonna work alongside one of our corporate GMs.
There's five corporate locations in our system.
This is the worst performing out of the five that we have.
Hey, folks, how are you doing today? Recently, I relocated the GM of this café from a more successful café in Philadelphia.
I need to see how we can fix this problem because our corporate locations are a vital part of our growth strategy.
- Hello.
- What's up? - K.
J.
- Adriana.
- Nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you too.
- How you doing? - Very good.
What are we doing today? We're getting you back here and we're putting you to work.
Here is your hat and apron.
All right, so today we're gonna focus on customer service.
Your customer is your life blood.
Okay.
- Hi.
- Hi.
- Can I have a chocolate chip? - Sure.
All right, so I'm gonna show you how to do the register real quick.
When you find a thing in the register right here chocolate chip it comes up.
It does the tax for you, it does all the math for you.
Total's down here, so read them their total.
$1.
79.
Print and process.
Faster, faster, faster, faster.
There you go.
- Thank you.
- Have a great day, guys.
Thank you.
You too.
You hitched? No.
No.
Uh, my boyfriend still lives in Philly.
- Mm.
- Yeah.
I got transferred out here about a month ago.
We lived together for a year and we moved to a new place and we were in our new place for all of two months before we before I had to leave.
Oh, it sucked.
So the next couple customers, I'm gonna have you ring.
Okay.
Speed of service is really, really important.
We have about 45 seconds to a minute per guest.
You must do.
That you have to greet, serve, ring up.
We're under pressure from corporate because we have sales to make, and if we don't make our goals, then we get reprimanded.
Okay.
Adriana talked about the 45 second mentality, which I was pleased to find out because that's our that's our standard.
I implemented this rule to increase efficiency and maximize profits in all of our cafés.
This is all your show.
Oh Hi, hi.
- Okay, you got to make it fast.
- What would you like? I would like to get your two cookies and one drink.
And a drink.
You'll get your drink.
- 45 seconds.
- Oh, no, no, no.
One minute.
I'm sweating now.
I'm sweating.
$14.
84.
Oh - Thank you so much.
- Thank you.
Two minutes and five seconds.
Ah! All right, come on.
Every guest, every guest, every guest.
Okay, I'm ready.
Hi, how are you? Three chocolate chip cookies.
You want chocolate chip? - Yes.
- 30 seconds.
Every time she's after me.
45 seconds, 45 seconds.
And I'm not sure if I hit one today.
- Thank you very much.
- Thank you.
Minute, 15.
You're getting a little better.
- Now do it twice as fast.
- I have to take a break.
A break? You have a line.
I'm guilty of putting high standards on myself, so then in turn, I actually end up putting them in the café as well.
I may have set them up to fail or unrealistic goals, and that came from me.
When I get back, it's one of the things I'm gonna address immediately.
I want to revisit that 45 second turnover for a guest.
Is it enough time for them to talk to the guest, to get to know them a bit before they actually serve them? - You enjoy your day, guys.
- Thank you.
- Thank you.
- Bye.
So we just helped a bunch of customers, right? - Yep.
- How quickly did we do that? - Pretty fast? - Pretty fast, yeah.
If we were audited, way too long.
And your boss tells you that? Well, we get audited through our camera systems.
Okay.
Yeah, these guys right up here.
So it sees, like, everything we put in the register.
It shows up on the thing so it sees, like, when the person came up, how fast we helped them, and then how much they were on their way, so we get random audits throughout the month.
Corporate is everywhere.
Always.
Always watching.
Ever vigilant.
They are Big Brother.
You can access a live feed from those cameras.
The VP of the company watches the cameras for fun.
[exhales sharply.]
She will make dinner, open up her laptop and leave the feed running to see if we're breaking down early.
I have gotten an email at 9:00 in the morning.
"Why didn't you make goal yesterday?" I don't know, there wasn't anybody here.
Like, "You need to work that you're making goal.
Why was your drawer $10 short?" I didn't close.
And they're like, "You need to find out.
You're the manager.
"You're responsible.
"You need to be in charge of every single aspect of your business.
" She talked about the VP of operations, which I was before where I am today, uh, putting up her laptop while she's making dinner for her family and watching the cafés.
Seems really unrealistic, but she's telling the truth, 'cause there's times I do watch what's going on in the cafés, but it shouldn't come across as though you're watching because you're waiting for someone to do something wrong.
It's unfair to Adriana to feel that way.
And I feel like she doesn't think we trust her.
And I don't think that's right.
Corporate is always watching.
Always watching.
Seems like a pain in the ass.
Oh, yeah.
They're constantly here.
And it's not just me that thinks the VP of the company is intimidating.
Everyone is afraid of her.
When the VP of the company shows up at your front counter and the 16-year-old you have running the register sees her, do you know what happens? They freeze.
She scares the living daylights out of your employees and then they can't work well.
So part of being a GM is getting things up to par, so that you don't need corporate breathing down your neck at all times.
I don't want to give that impression.
I want them to be able to talk to me.
I want them to be able to tell me what's going on in the café.
I want them to share ideas with me.
I need to find a way where they could open up and talk to me and not be afraid of Shawnon Bellah, COO.
What can we get for you? [somber music.]
Well, going into this, I thought it would be great for the company and I've taken that away for sure.
I think that not only did I learn about how the company can improve, but I've also learned that my approach needs to change.
I'm tough on myself.
I'm tough on those around me.
But what I fail to do is to let the caring that I have for those individuals actually even shine through.
[phone rings.]
(girl) Hi.
Hey, guys, how are you? This is hard for me because I'm not really an emotional leader or parent.
I know I have such high expectations for you.
I know that I need to stop, relax sometimes, because I don't want you to walk away and go off to college thinking, "Man, Mom was just tough all the time.
" I know I'm teaching them leadership, and I know I'm teaching them how to work hard.
I also want to make sure they're still having fun.
[sniffs.]
I love you guys so much.
(children) We love you too.
[dramatic music.]
(announcer) Coming up the employees think they're going to decide if K.
J.
deserves to win her own business.
How will they react when she reveals her true identity? You're a liar.
What up? I'm K.
J.
Pretty sure I told you you were terrifying.
[upbeat music.]
We are saying good-bye to Kristy.
I learned a lot about the cafés and the people that touch our brand.
I also learned a lot about myself.
I need to show more gratitude.
I need to be more grateful to those around me, and impact my company the way that I know it needs to be impacted.
- How are you? - Good, how are you? Good.
Tell me about Kristy.
- Um, not too great.
- [laughs.]
She definitely struggled.
I need to tell you something.
What up? I'm K.
J.
- No, you're a liar.
- [laughs.]
Wow, you fooled me there.
- My name is Shawnon Bellah - Oh.
And I'm actually the COO - Okay.
- For Nestlé Toll House Café.
You played me.
[laughs.]
Have you heard of "Undercover Boss"? I am kind of speechless right now.
I'm on "Undercover Boss.
" Oh, my goodness.
Pretty sure I told you you were terrifying.
- I think you used those words.
- Yeah.
I don't know how to handle this right now.
I apologize for calling you terrifying.
You do not owe me an apology.
Okay.
Am I too demanding? You can be a little bit overbearing.
Adriana, you can help me.
You really can.
If you're honest.
And for someone who's very confident you know everything about the business that you're in Right.
I'm not as good as I thought I was.
One thing you continued to push me on - was the 45-second rule.
- Service.
- 45 seconds.
- Oh, no, no, no.
One minute.
- Minute, 15.
- Oh, no.
I'm sweating.
Do you think it's realistic? No, not at all.
I'd like for you to work with me on identifying what is the speed of service.
- What's proper.
- Yeah.
You're fantastic at teaching others.
I'd like to actually put you through - some management training.
- What? [both laugh.]
I'm flattered that somebody thinks that I'm worth investing in.
Thank you.
I see something in you, and the reason I relocated you, is because you can be more to us than a GM.
[sniffles.]
You left your boyfriend.
I want to give you $20,000.
[sobs.]
I want you to use that money to fly each month to see your boyfriend.
Thank you.
Yeah.
[laughs.]
(Adriana) It is really gonna be awesome that I get to see my boyfriend at least once a month, 'cause it's really hard I'm sorry.
Anthony, your passion for what you do every day It was very contagious.
Thank you.
You're gonna make your first batch.
Oh, my Lord.
I mean, honestly I'm I'm really excited.
They say, "Kudos!" I'm good to go! One thing that you don't know is, the icing that we use comes strictly from your manufacturing plant.
Oh, wow.
Hey, that's my stuff.
That's the good stuff, you know? Wow.
I want to have a dessert happy hour, dessert party.
For your entire team at CSM, because I want you guys to know where your product goes.
That would be outstanding.
They would really appreciate that.
When I got to have a chance to get to know you, you were talking about the Yankees.
But you also told me you've never been to a game.
One day I'll make it to a game.
I want us to get together our families to get together, and go to a Yankees game.
[gasps.]
Are you serious? Wow! [laughs.]
That's what's up.
You all right.
You are all right.
I appreciate that.
You've inspired me with your passion.
Thank you.
I'm glad I was able to do so.
Your stories about your family and your mom - and you have five children.
- Yes.
That's a lot of responsibility to step up.
It is.
It is.
I'd like to give you - $15,000.
- Are you serious? Oh, wow.
[crying.]
Thank you so much.
Oh, wow.
- Will that help you? - Thank you, yes.
It will.
Thank you so much.
You are a blessing in disguise.
You really are.
I'm ecstatic.
I'm really ecstatic.
I cannot believe this happened to me.
Me, of all people? Are you serious? Wow.
I mean, I'm I'm blessed.
I'm truly blessed.
Thank you so much.
Thank you so much.
Well, Roberto, you show a lot of pride in your product.
Thank you.
Uh-oh, that dinosaur looks like he's already extinct.
During that inventory process, you said that you were out of The triple chocolate chip cookie.
I'm gonna work with the distributor.
I'm gonna make sure those things are in stock.
If you ever face this problem again, I want you to call me directly.
Thank you.
[laughs.]
One thing I'm amazed by you is you're able to put out an amazing cookie cake.
Thank you.
You talked to me about a LASIK surgery that you could have.
I'm gonna get the best care for your eyes, and I'm going to pay for it.
I can't believe this.
Sorry.
Thank you.
That's all I can say right now.
I was amazed by your talent.
And I'd like to give you $25,000, and I want you to go to pastry school.
Oh, wow.
Thank you.
This is amazing.
We are so proud to have you on our team.
Thank you.
I'm proud to be on it.
I'm super excited.
I'm super thankful.
I've had my vision like this all my life, so, I mean, it's gonna definitely be an improvement, no matter what happens.
My dinosaur will be better next time, I promise.
I believe it.
I believe it.
I now have the money to go to pastry school.
Never would imagine this in my life.
Bridgette.
You are truly one of the best brand ambassadors that we have in our entire company.
Thank you so much.
That means a lot to me.
My favorite color is yellow, so, I mean, this is, like, definitely the perfect job.
There are some things that I did notice in the store.
I want to go through those with you.
Okay.
But before I do, I want to bring somebody else in.
- How are you? - Good afternoon.
I'm so glad you're here.
When I first walked into that café You know, I haven't been there.
Right.
- And that's a shame.
- Yeah.
Because we take you for granted.
- Sorry.
- It's okay.
As a little bitty store in the middle of nowhere, we're just kind of out here all by ourselves.
What I'd like to do is send you to Dallas, all expenses paid, to go through training.
It'll cover everything that you need to know that we didn't teach you the first time.
Okay.
I want to give you $20,000 to bring your café up to our current standards, so it's something you can be proud of, - so we're giving you $10,000 - Thank you.
To build a marketing campaign focused completely on your café.
That's awesome.
I would like that.
(Sascha) I finally get to put my passion into my business where it needs to be instead of being stressed out over where the funds are gonna come from day-to-day.
It's more than I could ever hope for.
Having the opportunity to actually to work with you.
- It was just amazing.
- Good.
[laughs.]
I'm gonna use you to shoot corporate training videos to utilize across our entire brand.
[gasps.]
Okay.
- I'm gonna pay you for that.
- Thank you.
Thank you.
I want the world to see what I saw.
That means a lot.
To hear you talk about your brother Mm-hmm.
How often do you see him? Not very often.
We don't really get to see each other.
I want to give you $10,000.
And I want you to take him with you to an all-expense-paid vacation to Hawaii Thank you so much.
And I want you to enjoy it.
Thank you so much.
I can't wait.
You told me that one of your dreams was to become one of my franchisees.
Yes, I would love to have my own franchise.
Absolutely love it.
I'm gonna give you $170,000 towards opening your own Nestlé Toll House Café when you're ready.
Okay.
Thank you.
Feel like I'm in a dream.
I don't feel like this is real.
I'll be honored to see you succeed.
It would mean the world to me.
Thank you so much.
I'm really just thinking that there's no way this is actually happening to to me.
Once I got sick, I put all my dreams and hopes on hold and now that Shawnon's given me this opportunity, I am back to where I wanted to be.
I'm gonna own my own franchise.
Thank you so much.
And I'm just still beyond words.
I'm so excited and my heart is just filled with so much happiness right now.
[inspiring music.]