As we work on further developing our Hospitality Mindset, it's important that we understand a key insight to our success. To build a "customer first" culture, we must put the customer second. Our employees must come first, because there is a rule of thumb in business that says, "Your people will only treat your customers as well as they are being treated; thus to have satisfied customers, they must be served by passionate people who love the work they do and the people they work with and for."
To emphasize this point, Howard Schultz, the founder of Starbucks, said it best when he summed up the success of the Starbucks brand as follows, "We aren't in the coffee business serving people. We're in the people business serving coffee".
So, think about that. Are you really in the "food service business" or are we in the "People Business" serving food?
Our people are our greatest asset. If we don't take care of them, if we don't develop, recognize and reward them, then the competition will.