As a business owner or manager, your staff is your most important asset. Most everyone thinks it is your customers, but without a happy, satisfied, and motivated staff, customers will not be satisfied. I learned that early in my career, almost 40 years ago, when I managed a busy outdoor retail store. Being young, I focused all my efforts on the customers, and not much on my staff. One day my assistant manager, who was younger than me, pulled me aside and let me know that the staff was feeling alienated, and they weren’t feeling the “love”. This trickled down to an indifference from the staff when they interacted with customers. I’ve taken that lesson and refined it over the years, but until I owned my own business I wasn’t fully able to implement programs that 100% supports, motivates and encourages my staff. They take care of our guests, and I don’t have to worry about the guests at all.

Taking care of your team may seem like it costs money. And it does. But the payback for every business, not just those in hospitality, is happy customers, or in our case, guests. Every decision we make is made by questioning the impact of the decision on our staff. How and what we communicate. How we reward and discipline. We are very open about the company’s successes and failures. We treat our staff how we would want to be treated. We are empathetic and supportive. In the end, it’s not rocket science. It is being clear about expectations, and setting ground rules and explaining why those are there. It’s about listening, and about caring.

In the end, everything we do as managers flows down to our guests, and in the end, our guests tell their friends, who then come out with us. And they then tell their friends. An investment in your staff, will be an investment in the success of your business.