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What 5 qualities do you need in your frontline employees?

As restaurant operators, the most important thing we do is coach and develop our people.

February 10, 2016 by Lon Southerland — Executive Vice President, GuestMetrics, LLC.

If you're in the restaurant business, I'll venture to guess you frequently think about your frontline team, the importance of hiring the right candidates to represent your brand and the myriad of qualities critical for delivering the best possible customer experience. As restaurant operators, the most important thing we do is coach and develop our people. We have sophisticated analytics tools, including server scorecards and metrics that help focus in on performance, but when it comes right down to it skills are just part of the equation.

It starts with what we as leaders do to create and facilitate an environment in which our teams will thrive and exceed expectations. Keith Rogers, CEO of Keega Ventures, a group building a portfolio of world-class brands, had some thought-provoking input and I agree with his comment that it all starts with your company and brand itself. First and most important is "Know thyself" — know your core values, culture and why you exist as an organization. It all starts there. Once you know who you are, you can then build an organization filled with people that align with your core values and culture. 

Know your "Why" and fill your company with people that are passionately aligned with that "Why." As the Scottish revolutionary William Wallace might have said, "You will have an army of warrior poets prepared to charge the battlefield and put it all on the line for achieving victory." Heather R. Younger, J.D., CCXP, founder of Customer Fanatix reminded me that, "Employees whose values align with organizational values are truly the best fit. While technical skills can easily be taught, integrity, customer focus, and desire to contribute to the team are not as easy to train." Good advice! 

This is by no means all-encompassing. I received a great deal of input, all helpful in zeroing in on the right talent for the front line. I pared the list down to the five most important qualities. Most of these came up repeatedly when discussing the topic of hiring for the qualities that ensure customers are well taken care of:

1. James Collins, retired President of Chick-fil-A Inc, noted character — "Integrity and trustworthiness are character and essential since your brands reputation is truly in the hands of your front line representatives."
2. Jim Mizes, COO of Blaze Pizza, mentioned personality — "Those you seek should have an engaging friendly personality, should be fun, outgoing and genuinely relatable. This will significantly impact the customer experience in a positive manner."
3. Heather Younger, founder of Customer Fanatix, noted knowledge and skills — "These can be taught and it is imperative that as an organization we realize this fact and fully support their development and engagement. Find those who have a hunger to learn everyday and apply what they've learned, not just in gaining information and knowledge, but also more importantly, open to learning HOW to apply that knowledge in a way that is in alignment with the core values and culture of the organization."
4. Keith Rogers, CEO of Keega Ventures, said — "Can I see them as a future leader in the organization? Don't just hire for the frontline; try to hire people that you see leading and serving the team in supervisory/management roles. All they need is some coaching and mentoring." 
5. I, Lon Southerland, EVP of GuestMetrics, would add empathetic — To be effective resolving customer needs, one needs empathy, the ability to put oneself in another's shoes to view the situation from their perspective. Listening and truly understanding what it is that is most important to the customer results in the ability to more effectively meet and exceed their expectations.

Marla Topliff, president of Rosati's Pizza shared that, "Providing exceptional customer service is your #1 priority. The only way to be successful is by continually exceeding your customers' expectations — if you take care of the customer, they will take care of you."

I'll leave you with several parting thoughts from Collins: "People decisions are the best measure of executive competence. When you make good decisions, everybody knows. When you make bad people decisions, everybody knows. Executive careers are enhanced or destroyed on people decisions. When I was the COO of Chick-fil-A, Inc, people often asked: 'Why do you spend so much time on selecting people?' My reply: 'I don't have anything better to do!' " 

About Lon Southerland

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