A guest asking for somebody by name, a guest picking from photographs, and a guest choosing from whoever is in the room are three different things. Most venues record them as one number and then wonder why it does not move.

Somebody is requested. It goes in the book as a request, and at the end of the month there is a request figure.

⚠️ But three completely different things just went into that number, and they predict different futures. The venue that separates them can act; the one that does not has a figure that never moves.

⚠️ What this page cannot tell you

⛔ What you may record about individuals, how long you may keep it, what may be shown to whom, and what may be attached to somebody's pay or continued engagement are data protection and employment questions with specific answers where you are.

⛔ This page recommends no arrangement and takes no view on any. ⭕ Ask your adviser before adding a field, before showing anybody else's figures, and before attaching anything to them.

⭕ What follows is the operational half: whether the number you already keep is measuring one thing or four.

The three, and why they are different

⭕ The distinction is not a nicety. Each one tells you something the others cannot.

Asked for by name, in advance

⭕ The guest decided before arriving. ⚠️ ⭕ This is the only one that is genuinely a relationship — it survives a change of night, a change of price, and often a change of venue.

⇒ The Guest Who Only Comes for One Person

Chosen from photographs or a listing

⇒ ⭕ The guest chose without having met anybody. ⚠️ ⭕ This measures the photograph, the listing and the ordering at least as much as the person.

Chosen from whoever is in the room

⭕ The guest arrived undecided and picked from what was available. ⚠️ ⭕ This is heavily determined by who was on that night and in what order they appeared.

⇒ Stage Rotation Is a Scheduling Problem

And the fourth that gets mixed in

⇒ ⭕ The guest asked for somebody, that person was unavailable, and they took an alternative. ⚠️ ⭕ Recording this as a request for the alternative is the single most common distortion in this figure.

⇒ The Guest Who Asks For Somebody Who Has Left

What the mixed number hides

Four things, all of which you would want to know.

Whether the relationship is growing

⚠️ ⭕ Only the first kind tells you this. ⭕ A total that is rising because more people are being picked from photographs is not the same business getting stronger.

⇒ How Many Regulars Do You Actually Have

Whether the listing is doing the work

⇒ ⭕ If photograph-led choices are most of the number, the thing to improve is the listing, and that has nothing to do with anybody's service.

Who is carried by rotation

⭕ Somebody with high totals and almost no by-name requests is being carried by when they appear, not by anybody choosing them. ⚠️ ⭕ That is fragile and nobody can see it in the total.

And who is quietly building something

⇒ ⭕ Low totals, rising by-name. ⚠️ ⭕ This person looks weak in the mixed figure and is the one you most want to keep.

⇒ Why Your Best Staff Leave in Month Four

Separating them costs almost nothing

⭕ One extra field. That is the whole change.

Ask at the point of booking

⇒ ⭕ "Did they ask for anybody?" is one question at the moment the booking is taken. ⚠️ ⭕ Asked later, it is a guess.

Four values, not free text

By name, in advance
From photographs or a listing
From the room, on the night
Alternative after first choice unavailable

The fourth value is the one to insist on

⚠️ ⭕ It is uncomfortable to record and it is where the truth is. ⭕ Without it, an unavailable-first-choice night looks like a good night for whoever covered.

And record who was unavailable

⇒ ⭕ Not to attribute fault — to see how often the first choice was not there. ⚠️ ⭕ A guest whose first choice is unavailable twice usually does not come a third time.

⇒ The Guest Who Stopped Coming and Nobody Noticed

What to do with the split once you have it

Three uses, and none of them needs a new system.

Judge people on the right one

⭕ By-name, over time, for that person. ⚠️ ⭕ Judging on the total rewards being scheduled well, which is your decision, not theirs.

⇒ The Target Nobody Set Deliberately

Fix the listing where the listing is the problem

⇒ ⭕ If photograph-led choices are concentrated on three people, that is a photograph and ordering finding, and it is cheap to act on.

And watch the conversion between kinds

⚠️ ⭕ Somebody chosen from the room this month and asked for by name next month is the whole business working. ⭕ That transition is the single most useful number in this page, and it is invisible without the split.

⇒ What a Regular Is Actually Worth

What goes wrong when it is one number

⛔ Three failures, all of which look like something else.

The wrong person is promoted

⚠️ ⭕ High total, low by-name. ⭕ Given the best nights, which raises their total further, which confirms the original judgement.

The wrong person is let go

⛔ ⚠️ Low total, rising by-name, poor rotation. ⭕ This is the expensive one, and the split would have shown it in a month.

And the figure stops meaning anything

⇒ ⭕ Everybody learns the number is a mix of things they do not control, so it stops changing behaviour — which is what a measure is for.

⇒ When Someone Stops Being Requested

Starting from one number

⭕ You do not need history. The split works from the day you start it.

One month is enough to act

⇒ ⭕ Four weeks of split data shows the shape. ⚠️ ⭕ Waiting for a year of it is how this never gets started.

Do not reconstruct the past

⛔ ⚠️ Going back through old bookings and guessing which kind each was produces a figure that looks like data and is not. ⭕ Start from today and say so.

Expect the mix to surprise you

⭕ Most operators guess by-name is the majority and find it is not. ⚠️ ⭕ That gap between the guess and the count is the finding, and it is available in four weeks.

And tell people what changed

⇒ ⭕ If figures were previously judged on the total and will now be judged on by-name, that is a change that affects people — ⛔ take advice on how, and say it before the first month is counted, not after.

⇒ The Weekly Number Your Staff Never See

What good looks like

The four-values test

Ask how last night's requests were recorded. ⇒ Four kinds means you can act. One number means you cannot.

The unavailable test

⚠️ Ask how often a first choice was not available last month. No figure means the fourth kind is being recorded as the third.

The conversion test

Working     — you can name people who moved from room-choice to by-name
Not working — the only figure is a monthly total per person

Three to hold

1  Only by-name is a relationship; the others measure the listing or the rotation
2  The alternative-after-unavailable is the most common distortion, and the hardest to record
3  The move from room-choice to by-name is the most useful number here, and it needs the split

Where the record has to sit

Which kind each request was, who was asked for, whether they were available, and who took it instead — captured at the point of booking, with the other operating records rather than aggregated into one monthly figure. ⛔ What you may record about individuals is a question for your adviser — settle it before adding fields. Kept there, you can see within a month who is building something and who is being carried by the rota. Kept as one number, you will promote the person the schedule favoured and lose the one who was quietly being asked for by name.

⇒ The Report You Open Every Monday

Three Kinds Of Request Counted As One