Cornell Study: 
Coworker Support Is Vital to Restaurant Guest Satisfaction
Ithaca, NY

Good service is essential to ensuring restaurant guests’ satisfaction, and a big part of excellent service is having a guest-oriented server. The question for restaurant managers is how to make that happen.

A new study from the Cornell Center for Hospitality Research finds that creating an environment of supportive coworkers is a key ingredient for maintaining guest-oriented servers.

Three factors combine to create the guest orientation that makes for excellent restaurant service: clear standards, management support, and coworker support.

The question is, which of these elements promote guest-oriented employees? The study, “The Effects of Organizational Standards and Support Functions on Guest Service and Guest Satisfaction in Restaurants,” answers this question with a model that connects these elements.

The study is available at no charge from the Center at http://www.hotelschool.cornell.edu/chr/research/centerreports/.

In a survey of 324 service employees and 271 guests at 25 midwestern restaurants, researchers Alex Susskind, K. Michele Kacmar, and Carl P. Borchgrevink found that all three factors—standards, management support, and coworker support—contribute to service excellence. Although supportive coworkers is the factor that carries the most weight, Susskind and his colleagues discovered an essential role for managers. “Management support per se is not a strong contributor to service employees’ guest orientation, but managers have a critical role in explaining, reinforcing, and executing the restaurant’s service standards,” said Susskind, an associate professor of food and beverage management at the Cornell School of Hotel Administration. “Those standards form the basis of the restaurant’s success in satisfying guests.” While such other factors as food quality and restaurant ambience also are essential for guest satisfaction, this study shows the importance of guest-oriented servers to a restaurant’s success. Meet and interact with Dr. Susskind, an active member of the executive education faculty at the School of Hotel Administration, when he presents in the Professional Development Program http://www://hotelschool.cornell.edu/execed/pdp.html.