Hempy: Standardization Is Not the Enemy of Hospitality

In today’s customized world, “standardization” often gets a bad rap. Every customer wants to be able to customize their own coffee order at Starbucks. Standardization can be seen as cold, corporate, or the opposite of genuine hospitality. But the truth is exactly the opposite. The best hospitality brands in the world don’t deliver remarkable experiences by hoping their people feel kind and energetic every day. They deliver them by building systems that make excellence inevitable, even on a bad day.

Brands like Ritz-Carlton, Chick-fil-A, and In-N-Out Burger, which are famous for hospitality, don’t rely on personality alone. They rely on process. They standardize what matters most so their teams are free to focus on serving people well. Even Starbucks is currently in the news regarding a shift to return to more structure and standards to improve speed and quality. 

Horst Schulze, the co-founder of Ritz-Carlton, has said that “excellence is not an act, it is a habit, built deliberately into the organization.” Ritz-Carlton didn’t become legendary because it hired only naturally gracious and kind people. It became synonymous with hospitality because it designed systems that define what excellence looks like, trained relentlessly to those standards, and empowered employees within clear guardrails to act on behalf of the guest.

Will Guidara writes in his bestselling book Unreasonable Hospitality about how he took the same approach at the Michelin restaurant Eleven Madison Park. Guidara emphasizes that hospitality doesn’t scale through heroics but instead, it scales through intention. In other words, if you want consistent, world-class hospitality, you don’t leave it up to chance. You build repeatable behaviors into your operation so the right thing happens automatically.

This approach can make a huge impact in the drive-through oil change and auto service business.

We work in a fast-paced, physically demanding environment. Team members are hot (or cold), tired, short-staffed, and under time-sensitive pressure. Expecting hospitality to shine purely through good intentions is unrealistic. Systems are what carry hospitality when energy is low.

Start simple. Standardize your greetings and guest acknowledgment. The best quick lube operators don’t “hope” guests feel welcomed. They define exactly what happens in the first moment: eye contact, a smile, a clear welcome, and a name if possible. When that sequence is standardized, guests feel seen every time, regardless of who’s on shift. I recently pulled up to a nationally known oil change brand and no one greeted me for more than 10 minutes. You can stand out from the national brands by standardizing your greet.

Next, you can write a few standardized presentations during the service. Clear scripts for explaining wait times, services being performed, and next steps reduce anxiety for guests. Hospitality isn’t just friendliness; it’s clarity. A guest who knows what’s happening feels cared for. That doesn’t happen by accident but because someone designed the process.

Standardization doesn’t make service robotic. Well-designed systems remove friction, reduce decision fatigue, and give team members confidence. When people aren’t guessing what “good” looks like, they can focus on being present with the guest in front of them.

The brands we all admire most understand this truth. Hospitality is not about hiring perfect people. It’s about building processes that help real people deliver excellence, consistently. In quick lube, as in life, standards don’t limit hospitality. They protect it.