Donald Burns explains how changing restaurant language from customers to guests and coworkers to team members shaped culture. The shift required a mission statement focused on comprehensive hospitality and measurably improved how staff treated people walking through the door.
Our purpose is really, we exist to support our team, to delight our guests and to serve our community. And we started using different language as far as our guests instead of customers. Yep. And instead of co workers, which I use because it was a C word back then. And customers, you know, it's guests now. Mission statement. You know, we. We had a clear mission statement that we didn't really develop until we started working with you. And our mission statement is we give exceptional experiences through fanatical wall to wall hospitality. And when I say, obviously, you know what fanatical is, but wall to wall hospitality, what we preach and what that means in our restaurants is from the back door to the front door and everything in between. And we try to create experiences, not just a restaurant visit. And so you helped us. Thank you. Put those things together. But then to start preaching them to the team, you can just see how culture just started getting better and better and better. And we still have a ways to go, but man, we're hitting 90% these days.
If your restaurant only works because you work 80 hours a week, it doesn't work.
