Be nice; everything else gets easier.

principle — attributed to Charlie Palmer

Palmer keeps his teams aligned with one simple guideline. Be nice. Everything in hospitality boils down to being nice to people. Once people realize the team is nice, everything is more enjoyable. The food tastes better. Tense customers relax. The relational temperature of the room changes. The discipline is operationally rare. Most hospitality training emphasizes process and standards. Palmer's emphasis is the simpler thing under the process. Niceness is not softness; it is a deliberate posture that produces measurably different guest behavior. The implication for any service business is that the team's affective posture is part of the product, not separate from it.

For restaurant operators, hospitality teams, and any front-line service business. The principle is most useful as a corrective when team training has emphasized standards at the expense of warmth.

niceness, hospitality, team-guideline, service