Michel Falcon | Why Your Employees Should Come Before Your Customers | ChatGTM S2 E42

Should employees come before customers? Michel Falcon believes they should, challenging one of hospitality's oldest rules.In ChatGTM S2 E42, Michael Beck and Chad Horn sit down with Michel Falcon, entrepreneur, restaurateur, bestselling author of People First Culture, keynote speaker, and founder of Brasa Peruvian Kitchen, for a candid conversation about company culture, restaurant leadership, hiring, employee retention and customer experience.Michel describes Brasa's culture as “friendly, high performance.” Kindness matters. Performance matters. Accountability matters. Putting people first doesn't mean lowering the bar.🔥 WHY RESTAURANT HIRING MAY BE BROKENMichel believes restaurants often create their own turnover problems by hiring too quickly.Brasa intentionally makes candidates work for the opportunity. Michel says the company pays approximately 21% above industry peers for comparable roles and experienced only 9% employee turnover last year.One application question says a lot about what Brasa looks for:“Have you ever been called kind before?”But kindness doesn't replace accountability. Michel explains how leaders can invest deeply in employees while maintaining exceptionally high performance standards.🤯 SHOULD CUSTOMERS COME SECOND?Michel openly challenges “the customer always comes first.”His argument isn't anti-customer. If extraordinary customer experiences are created by employees, leaders need to create an environment where employees actually want to deliver them.The conversation explores people-first leadership, restaurant hiring, employee retention, hospitality, customer experience, company culture, customer lifetime value and creating what Michel calls an “unfair” customer experience.🍽️ BUILDING BRASAMichel is putting these ideas into practice at Brasa Peruvian Kitchen, his healthy Peruvian fast-casual concept. Brasa began as a small ghost kitchen and expanded into Toronto and New York.⏱️ CHAPTERS00:00 Welcome to ChatGTM 02:36 Meet Michel Falcon 04:50 Origin of People-First Culture 08:35 Human Relationships at Work 11:06 Employees Before Customers? 12:04 Minimum Pay, Minimum Effort 14:42 Defining Your Company Culture 16:15 Friendly + High Performance 17:40 Solving Restaurant Turnover 20:29 Why Restaurant Hiring Is Broken 21:06 Michel's Hiring Test 24:03 The Biggest Culture Mistake 26:18 Watching His Father Lose a Restaurant 29:26 Michel's Brilliant Interview Question 31:22 Kindness + Accountability 32:36 The “Unfair” Customer Experience 33:31 Stop Nickel-and-Diming Customers 35:01 Building Brasa Peruvian Kitchen 37:36 Peruvian Superfoods 41:08 Designing Great Hospitality 43:58 Rapid Fire 45:32 People-First Isn't Fluffy 46:37 Final Thoughts👇 YOUR TURNWho should come first in hospitality: the employee or the customer?Tell us why in the comments.🔔 Subscribe to ChatGTM on YouTube for conversations with the leaders shaping restaurants, hospitality, technology and GTM.🟢 Follow ChatGTM on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/chatgtm-podcast/Real people. Real conversations. Real insight.#ChatGTM #MichelFalcon #PeopleFirstCulture #RestaurantLeadership #CompanyCulture #HospitalityLeadership #EmployeeExperience #CustomerExperience #RestaurantHiring #RestaurantIndustry #Hospitality #IncTankGTM