The Importance of Implementing Good Company Culture in Restaurants

Lonnie Lazear leverages his formal education in tourism and hospitality at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore to lead Glory Days Grill as a multi-unit restaurant manager. In this capacity, Lonnie Lazear oversees all operations at the restaurant franchises, including food quality control and contract and personnel management. As with other businesses, restaurants rely heavily on company culture to succeed, and this culture is shifting toward a focus on customer-first environments.

Broadly, company culture refers to the behaviors of a particular entity and the meaning tied to said behaviors. A company’s vision, value, language, organizational strategy, and many other things affect these behaviors. In restaurants, they dictate the daily life of a business and its employees. Good culture helps employees feel comfortable and enjoy their time at work with their coworkers. This, in turn, affects customers since they respond to employees’ behaviors.

Since customers are so affected by company culture, it’s often wise to implement a customer-first culture. Employees of all levels in an organization are responsible for maintaining this type of culture, from the CEO to the janitorial staff. It involves knowing the customers and understanding their needs, training staff to respond to these needs and always put the customer first, and rethinking the layout of the restaurant to improve the customer experience.