The Puffy Muffin in Brentwood, Tenn. isn’t your typical sweet shop. For one, they list 18 core values and a testimonial from big-shot at EMI Christian Music Group Holly Whaley on their website. Second, they met an unprecedented sales goal in the midst of a recession this quarter. Makes you want to drop by for a pastry, right? Unfortunately they’re closed this week. Since employees met that sales goal, Puffy Muffin owners Lynda and Jack Stone are taking the staff on an Alaskan cruise.
From Aug. 1-9, 2010, stars like Faith Hill and Vince Young will have to settle for their local Starbucks pound cake because the Puffy Muffin is closed for good behavior.
“With this incentive, we wanted to encourage our staff to be a part of something more than what they hear on the nightly news,” Lynda Stone said in a press release. “Our employees, who range in ages from 16 to 72, need to know that there is still a future worth believing in and that they see the results of their hard work and positive attitude.”
It all started in September 2009 at a staff retreat. Looking for a way to motivate everyone as sales were down, they showed a video of an Alaskan vacation, and everyone started squealing — this isn’t the first time the Puffy Muffin has rewarded its employees with a trip.
“We told the team that if they met that goal, we were going on this dream vacation,” COO Jason Burns said in the press release. “We posted a ‘thermometer’ to track the progress and each month as the meter rose, the staff would begin to get more noticeably excited in anticipation of the next update.”
And who paid for this “dream vacation?” All of the money from the extra profits went into a money market fund, so essentially, the employees. They proved that hard work does pay off and turns into sweet success!
Photo by yomi955 via Flickr.