Restaurants
are people driven. The customers are
people and being a service business the restaurant employees are a critical
component of making the restaurant experience a good one . Think about it , if restaurant has 100,000
customers visits in a year there, there
are several employees that influence the quality of each visit . These can be direct interaction such as the
server or order taker or food quality impact such as the cook or chef . Furthermore , others impact the dining
experience in areas like cleaning , maintenance , food prep , clearing tables, valet parking, taking out
garbage , executing social media strategy , or how well the manager schedules
staffing for a particular shift . If
there are 10 people directly or indirectly influencing the dining experience of
those 100,000 then theoretically there
are at least one million potential influence or interaction points .
A lot of
traditional marketing text books and terminology focus on the Four P’s . These Four P’s are Product , Price , Place
or Placement, and Promotion . I submit
that in the restaurant business perhaps more than any other industry there is
the Fifth P and by that I mean People . Additionally, social media has changed the
way and frequency with which consumers communicate their dining experiences . Successful
restaurateurs know this and that includes some great local examples . While
effective human resource management involves many aspects including planning,
selection, interviewing , training,
retention , labor scheduling methodologies ( including software ) , base
compensation, incentives , the component
that binds or is the “glue” to all this is the enterprise “culture” . Effective enterprise culture sets
expectations, helps define what type of
person is a fit for the organization ,
facilitates teamwork , and helps
employees make decision when faced with a new situation or grey area .
The restaurant business is as much a
people business as it is a food business .
That why People are “The Fifth P “ .
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