Celebrating 250 Episodes with Five Industry Experts

Zack Oates: 0:01

Welcome to a very special edition of Give an Ovation, the Restaurant Guest Experience Podcast, where I talk to industry experts to get their strategies and tactics you can use to create a five-star guest experience. This podcast is sponsored by Ovation, a two-question guest feedback platform that gives multi-unit restaurants all the answers without annoying their guests with all the questions. Learn more at ovationupcom. And today's a very special podcast because I don't just have one guest, I don't have two guests, I have five guests today and this is a podcast celebrating our 250th episode. Isn't that incredible? And each of you have been on the podcast and your episodes have done so well and we've become such good friends over the years and each of you have had such a profound influence on me on Ovation, on the podcast on the industry, that I'm just honored to be here with you.

Zack Oates: 1:01

So quick lineup of who we got Kelly McPherson, Chief Technology and Supply Chain Officer at Union Square Hospitality Group. Jeff Alexander, the president and CEO at WowBow. Cj Ramirez, the EVP of Marketing at Doghouse and the Absolute Brands. David the Rev Ciancio, Marketing Executive Consultant, Co-Founder and CMO of Handcraft Burgers and Brew. And Sean Walchev, the owner of Cali Barbecue and Cali Barbecue Media. And wow, the fact that I get to host a podcast with these folks, with your caliber of people, is just amazing to me. So thank you all for being here.

Speaker 2: 1:44

Stoke yeah.

Zack Oates: 1:44

Congratulations. Thank you so much.

Speaker 2: 1:47

Always a pleasure.

Zack Oates: 1:48

I honestly I'm not sure if a more powerful lineup has been produced at any event or any trade show. Trust me, I've been to them all, so let's start it off, Kelly. Let's have you kick off this podcast. Whoa. What do you think is the most important aspect of guest experience?

Speaker 4: 2:09

Yeah, I mean, I think it's really about how you make guests feel right and do they feel cared about as well as cared for, and it's really an emotional connection right, and I think that's the most important part of it. And we talk a lot about the hospitality versus service. Service being and to somewhat quote Danny not exact, but services is really the technical aspect, and we strive for online hospitality, which, again, is really about how you make people feel.

Zack Oates: 2:42

I love that Cause, as we're looking into the future, someone just asked me today. They said what did we? What should restaurants expect in 2024? And I said it's always been a fight for the mind and the belly of the guest. I go from here on out it's going to be a fight for the heart of the guest, right, cause those guests are just so important and I think how you make them feel is just the heart of everything that you've done in your career, that Danny's done in his career. I think that is so spot on. And, cj, obviously you're coming from a unique perspective where you not only have a bunch of physical locations and, by the way, I got to hang out with Michael two nights ago.

Speaker 2: 3:25

Yeah, I see our new CEO not really not so new anymore, Maybe while this is there, but yeah, Michael's on.

Zack Oates: 3:30

Yeah, so we sat next to each other at dinner in LA two days ago and I got to try the. I got to eat the cowboy the cowboy hot dog, which is Isn't that your favorite?

Speaker 2: 3:39

You get that up in our standee little place.

Zack Oates: 3:41

I can't. Every time I go I have to get that, cause it's so amazing, but besides having food that is just dream worthy what are some tactics that you're using across the digital brands Cause with absolute, you have more than just doghouse a bunch of digital brands in the physical locations.

Speaker 2: 3:58

Well, I mean little piggyback off of what Kelly is saying, because we have all these virtual restaurant brands. During COVID I'm not going to talk about it anymore, other than this everyone was all in the digital and so we were all digital and we've been fighting to come back from all digital into, you know, inside of four walls. So if we look at our business this year we're about 50-50. And so it is time to lean into that service to bring people inside the four walls.

Speaker 2: 4:28

We're focusing on everything from technology, integration, ambiance and comfort, a guest feedback loop and kids right. If you focus on those things, I think it's really going to give you insights as to what the customers want to experience and keep bringing them in for more. I mean, of course I'm not talking about food, because I think our food is amazing and everyone here looks like we had it and has had a positive experience with it, but it's really about keeping your customer inside the four walls, getting them to have that extra beverage right and increase that in-store sales number. So for us, those are things that we're focusing on and of course, they break down into the minutiae and I could talk about that in a podcast all on my own, but I think everyone would have something to say about those categories and I love the idea of bringing people back in.

Zack Oates: 5:22

So, of our panelists here, how many people are focused on bringing people into the four walls versus, like more, just continuing to push digital? I mean, obviously, jeff, you've got an interesting perspective there, but and I'll get to you I want you to answer this question last, I want to piggyback into another one, but, sean Rev Kelly, are you guys focused on pushing digital or getting people into the four walls?

Kelly MacPherson: 5:48

Well, I mean we're in a unique position. 99% of our transactions are digital, so I'm not sure how much more I could push.

Speaker 2: 5:58

You know there is, though, the opportunity, rev, that you and I have talked about count for countless hours, as well as texting back and forth, and that digital doesn't only mean outside of the four walls right, you've got to bring that experience inside your four walls. You've got to have an ordering environment that's easy to use, and for the first order, maybe when someone comes in, or maybe that second order, right, maybe they're doing having fun inside your restaurant or talking to someone and they don't want to break that conversation, but we know looking down at our phones does not break the conversation anymore, and so you can free up on a beverage or even, you know, get something to share.

Kelly MacPherson: 6:34

Yeah, so we are actually upgrading our four walls digital experience. So that's kind of answering both. But you know we had sort of like kiosks that checked the boxes, let's say since we opened, and now that we've hit our two year anniversary, we're actually upgrading our kiosks to have smart kiosks. So, we're still focused on digital, but we're also going to make the in-store digital experience better.

Zack Oates: 6:58

So you're telling me that you're leveling up your kiosks to the level of your French fries?

Kelly MacPherson: 7:05

I'm not sure anything's going to exceed those, but you know we're getting closer for sure.

Speaker 4: 7:10

Best French fries in the world Amazing, thank you. I mean, I think it also depends on the restaurant type and which vertical you fall in right. And so for us we'd never lean into digital in some of our Michelin star restaurants or some of our fine dining restaurants, whereas very different to fine casual or, you know, fast casual and say like a daily provisions. And so for us it's continuing of. You know, how do you take technology and enable that guest experience in a very invisible and not invasive way, right? So a big focus of ours is on data and personalization, and how do I create moments of memories for that dining experience that still continues to feed that human connection, without putting, like technology, front and center of that guest experience?

Kelly MacPherson: 8:04

By the way, you know what the other thing is, kelly, you know what oh go ahead Do you know where DLE provisions is Literally below this window. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2: 8:15

I'm thinking Kelly's absolutely right. You know I'd be getting a ton of requests from our franchise needs for kids coloring books and so how far away from technology can we get right? Let's get some crayons and let's get some fun things to color and can. Maybe you know we've been focusing on the alpha, but certainly there's a generation below them and if you keep them busy while their parents are having a good time, I think that's a great win. Yeah.

Zack Oates: 8:40

And what about you, sean, because you know I've been to your location a couple of times. You have a great spot there. You know it's a nice big location, very, it's got such a character to it. And then, as you're doing these outposts around San Diego and surrounding areas, are you trying to get more people into the heart of the restaurant or are you trying to get, are you trying to increase your digital?

Speaker 5: 9:06

It's interesting we've gone from. You know, I've always say that we for 15 years have built Cali barbecue and now we're building also Cali barbecue media and through the pandemic. We didn't pivot. We went all in on digital and we followed the ghost kitchen craze and we opened up to cloud kitchen locations ghost kitchen we called friendly ghost kitchen locations and we've closed those locations. So now we only have one ghost kitchen location at a maker location, so maker kitchens Bennett.

Speaker 5: 9:36

He is been a great partner and I think you know part of the problem with our thesis was that we expected the landlord and the other tenants to also help with collaboration. Some of the locations were difficult locations. So part of the reason why we believe in media and storytelling, the way that we do is you've been to spring valley. It's an off the beaten path location so we've leaned heavily into marketing ourselves, branding ourselves now telling other people stories. And now when we go to these other locations, we can't do it by ourselves. We need help and I think that's part of the problem that I've always had with ghost kitchens terrible brand, terrible name. And to your question, are we focused? We're focused on always leveraging technology to get more barbecue to more people slow food fast. The problem with barbecue is it takes time and it takes expertise and we've mastered the craft of making great barbecue and now we can't discriminate how people get that. So you know, obviously we're leaning more into things like what Jeff's doing. I mean, I love the idea of figuring out a way to get a barbecue vending machine in a high volume location. How we do that logistically that's, you know, yet to be determined. But you know airport locations, you know stadium locations are stadium at snapdragon since stadium, we have two stands there that do absolutely phenomenal. We cook the barbecue at our restaurant, we deliver it there. Wholesale opportunities are really exciting for us.

Speaker 5: 11:11

But you know, to answer the ghost kitchen kitchen question, it's tough. It's tough to see, you know a tool, son, who's a close friend of mine and many of your friends, to see them out of the ghost kitchen game. I love the idea of Cali barbecue being in a Kroger. You know, I love that. You know opportunity to be with where there's actually existing foot traffic. But you know they've moved away, they're pivoting more into software and I think all of us here, you know here on this show, we all have seen what are playing out and you know, I'd love to hear what what Jeff sees in the ghost kitchen space, because that's the virtual playground. This is the king of virtual playgrounds. We have doghouse to which we've got to two of the two of the best in class, if not the Hall of Famer. So I'd love to hear what what Jeff has.

Zack Oates: 11:58

Yes is Jeff. I mean, you've got airport locations. I've tried, wow, bow delivered. I've tried at airports. You've got physical, regular walk in sit down locations. What are you seeing like? Where are you driving people?

Speaker 6: 12:15

Yeah, look, let's go back to the question you had earlier about you know a focus and what's happening. I think there's two parts to hospitality. I appreciate what everyone else said already, but whether you're eating food in your restaurant or at your, at your home or in the airport, you still want to be hospitable, you still want to convey that you're thankful that they came in, that the experience is good and quote what Kelly said you want to create a memory. But I think there's another piece of the hospitality that no one's talked about. You have to create hospitality for your employees also. You got to create great work environment. You got to create action and fun and high energy, because then that translates to the, to the consumer. And if we're feeding, you know, 4000 people a day, mainly off premise, we want them to feel good, that they chose us, not just that they had great food, but the, the packaging held up and that they could reheat the food if they needed to, or keep it fresh and the refrigerator, or there was some kind of a note in there that you know if it is obviously in order for a single diner that you treated them a little differently than you treat. Treat that to go meal for four people, right, with notes, or surprising the prize and delights, or whatever it may be. I just think there's so many ways to be hospitable and that is to me, you know, the biggest opportunity in 2024,.

Speaker 6: 13:33

You know, pre pandemic, and I know CJ already said we don't get to say coven once. So there's the second one, drinking game. Now, right, but you know, pre pandemic we were in the hospitality business and then, during the pandemic, we became the food industry and it's so important to get back to being the hospitality industry and I think that is what I'm hearing from the other people on the on the screen here and from, obviously, what your company does, zach, is it's all about bringing back that feeling of thank you for coming in. How can I make your evening better? How can I get you to come back and how can I get you to have a memory to share with other people?

Speaker 6: 14:11

And I love the idea that parents are doing coloring books right now. It's probably for their fourth kid, because they ruined the first time by giving them, you know, the cell phone and so that they want the kid to, you know, have a conversation. But it there is this feeling of community that we lost, you know, for a number of years because we couldn't get out there and socialize. And we commiserate around food, we celebrate around food, right food touches all of our lives in so many ways. We need to bring back that storytelling that Sean was talking about, that memory making that's happening and become a rotary fun, just like we're having on this call.

Speaker 4: 14:47

I think what you said is so important because when you look at it, and when I build our, when we build our tech strategy, we always start with the employee experience Right and then we lead into the guest experience and for that, you know, that's first and foremost the most important part for us. I mean, obviously it's all important, but we always start with our staff first and our virtual cycle.

Speaker 6: 15:09

Sure and Kelly, it's because number one their guests also. Right, we, like all of our employees, be lifers with us, but we know they're only going to spend a certain amount of time with us. They're free marketing to get out there about it and if they're happy and it's working, they're enjoying it. It's only going to translate that much better to the consumer. So, absolutely, you're spot on that. That's where the focus needs to start.

Zack Oates: 15:32

And I'm so glad, by the way I just want to point out I'm so glad that I said what was my opinion was coming in 2024. So, Jeff, now you can't say I ripped you off and I copied you, because I can still say it.

Speaker 6: 15:46

Yeah, you had a prep call. You stole it then.

Zack Oates: 15:50

But I totally did. And you know, at the end of the day, I mean we're all just stealing Danny's quotes, right, because I mean in his book setting the table, he said hospitality is a dialogue, right, and having that connection, that conversation, I think is something that's so important and, you know, and looking at how we bring people in, I think it's so important to think about the employees. But when we're looking at our guests and Rev, I want to go to you, or this one, as you're the, you know, the CMO consultant. You work with a lot of restaurant brands, a lot of technology brands when you're looking at, when you're looking at, like the restaurant, is it better? Should restaurants be focusing on acquisition or retention?

Kelly MacPherson: 16:36

And I sorry. First of all, I appreciate you saying nice things about me, thank you, but I also appreciate you throwing me this ball. I think that the biggest opportunity in terms of revenue growth from a restaurant's perspective is retention.

Zack Oates: 16:50

Whoa, but Rev, Rev, 97% of my customers are coming back to my restaurant. Everybody loves my food. I'm telling you, Rev, I don't have a retention problem and the biggest.

Kelly MacPherson: 17:04

the biggest problem in the industry, at least from my perspective, is called a one timer and 70% of restaurant guests only dinette restaurant one time Now we're never going to get to 100%.

Kelly MacPherson: 17:16

But if we get to 65 or 60 or 50, god bless. And I think that restaurants forget about some of the really easy to move retention tactics, like saying thank you. You know what I mean? And I go to a lot of these conferences not as many as you, clearly and I sit in front of these marketing panels and they're like oh, loyalty program this and no extra points that. And how do I do this discount? I'm like, how about you just set up something in your CRM that on a guest fifth visit you say thanks for coming five times? Like just the simple not of appreciation. I think the acquisition or sorry, retention tactics are way easier than we make them and a lot of them just come around for being a feeling of being grateful, like thank you, guests for being here. And if we say thank you in more creative, interesting and frequent ways, I think that will increase retention. So I'm focused on retention.

Zack Oates: 18:12

And one data point to add to that is I'll let on, this podcast is going to be like our first like public announcement of like some of this data that we're that we're uncovering. But I think the other side of that is saying thank you and saying I'm sorry, we have found that an unhappy guest. So the average guest has 30% likelihood of coming back. If a guest is upset they had a negative experience they have a 13% likelihood of coming back. Now if you respond to that guest and you say Kelly, this is Zach here at Zach Shack, I'm so sorry you messed up your order, we'll do what we can to make it right and would love to invite you back in. You don't even have to give him something.

Zack Oates: 18:58

But if you just say sorry and use their name, that retention rate goes from 13% to 68%. Not only that, but that guest is going to spend $5 more per visit. They come in four and a half times more often than the average guest and they're five times more likely to leave a five star review. So, in terms of like you know and they always say that offense is the best defense, right, or is it? Defense is the best offense. Whatever the case, my dad's played lineman, so I think offense is the best.

Speaker 2: 19:34

And I wouldn't argue with your father.

Kelly MacPherson: 19:38

He also likes our fries and left us a five star review about it.

Zack Oates: 19:44

I think that's his only five star review he's ever left because he's like what's this Google thing anyway? But I think that you know, when you are getting people coming back in, that becomes a marketing engine, right, that becomes an acquisition engine. And so I totally agree with your rev, not just because that's what ovation does, but because I think it's really powerful. Data shows that. That retention. When you focus on that, I love the thank you part. I haven't really thought about that. When you focus on the thank you and the I'm sorry there's, there's really powerful things that can grow businesses.

Kelly MacPherson: 20:19

I don't want to make this a pat handcraft burgers in the brew on the back show but we don't think of ourselves as a hamburger shop. We think of ourselves as a thank you machine. So if you go, look at any social media posts we've ever put out there.

Speaker 4: 20:32

They all end with thank you.

Kelly MacPherson: 20:34

If you go read any email we've ever said, it says thank you. The most popular, frequent said words in our dining room are thank you, and so we really focus on the gratitude piece of it. And, by the way, you prevent having to say sorry a lot more often. More times you say thank you. So offense better defense.

Zack Oates: 20:54

Love that. And, sean, you had mentioned something before about ghost kitchens. You're like, well, I don't really know, you know they're. They're kind of like dying there. Bad name, bad brand, like what, what does it? Will ghost kitchens still be around in five years? And, if so, like what will they look like? What's, what's the future of? Like the, the non front door traditional restaurant.

Speaker 5: 21:19

I love what Carl and Meredith talk about because they talk about it not being a ghost kitchen. It's more about delivery. When you think of what Jeff is talking about is, how are you consuming the food? It's less of the idea. Most people don't even know what a ghost kitchen is. I mean, I guarantee you, if all of us wrote down on a piece of paper our definition of what a ghost kitchen is, it would all be different. And if we're all the industry insiders, that's kind of a big problem, don't you think? Yeah, we got a big problem there.

Speaker 5: 21:47

And when I think of how people consume, just in our own case, how do they consume barbecue? It's we need to find easier ways to allow them to purchase barbecue, not just from a catering perspective. Of like, when somebody comes to our website, I need to make it as easy as possible for them to order for a group of 25 people for their office. Well, what does that look like? I need to make that digital experience. Well, I need five pounds of brisket. How much does five pounds serve? You know all of those barbecue math that I have to do, my team has to do, my catering manager has to do. We need to make that easy on the digital side. And if I make it easy on the digital side, then I have more barbecues going out to the biotech companies here in San Diego, to the Qualcomm's of the world. That's how I grow my business, and catering is a much more profitable side of my business.

Speaker 5: 22:38

Like, is that ghost kitchens? Well, it's not really ghost kitchens, but it's delivery right. You know it's somebody consuming Cali barbecue within my local area and I can produce as much barbecue as I can out of my master's smokehouse. Well, I wanna get more barbecue on the catering side. I wanna get more barbecue that can get warmed up. You know I'm looking at what Pizza HQ does and they go and they partner with these.

Speaker 5: 23:02

You know trampoline parks. These trampoline parks, I have a six year old boy and a four year old girl. Guess what? Every Saturday and every Sunday I'm at a bounce house or a trampoline park and they have an active audience of thousands of consumers that have bad pizza and that's pretty much it. Chips is their option. If I can figure out a way that I'm smoking slow smoke brisket and pulled pork and I can partner with these trampoline parks and then deliver on a daily basis, how you can sell sliders to the kids for all the barbecue, like that's a great way for me to expand my business. Is that ghost kitchen? No, but it's delivery. It's wholesale. It's a way of thinking about my restaurant in a different way.

Speaker 6: 23:39

I love the smart number of those bounce houses to start running. Yeah, what did you say? I need to name a number of the bounce houses before you call them. Yeah, I got it.

Speaker 4: 23:50

Do you not think it's a distinction between ghost kitchens and what I would refer to it as a dark kitchen, where you have an offsite production facility for catering or offloading some of your delivery, as you said? Because now that restaurants are coming and people are wanting to come back into the restaurants, like you, can still only have so much capacity, right? So if you're running and this is where you start to run into the bottleneck of being able to fill orders, and so, if I can take that, move it out of the four-wall operation and have it focused specifically on catering and delivery, now my team within the four walls can focus on what they need to do. I don't necessarily have to have lines of bikers outside the front of the restaurant creating chaos, and then you just deliver a better experience for all your guests and so meeting them where they want to interact with you and making it the most frictionless for everybody staff as well as the guests, and I think that's how I look at it in a different lens.

Zack Oates: 24:58

Yeah, so it's less around. Let's stop worrying. I guess what I'm hearing, sean is like and team, whatever it's called, let's just talk about how do we increase the capacity and not confine it to the four walls. And so, whether it's called a dark kitchen, ghost kitchen, whatever the case is, it's like let's find other avenues to put our food in people's bellies and the different modes of delivery. To your point, sean, I think that's a really good point and, by the way, I can tell everyone on this call that, kelly, when you talked about a row of bikers outside the restaurant, I know exactly what Rev was thinking about, and he was thinking about Pee Wee's big adventure and all the fun stuff. Tell me you weren't thinking about that, rev.

Kelly MacPherson: 25:55

I don't maintain much of a bucket list, but one of them is one day I'm going to go visit every single location that that movie was filmed in as a vacation.

Zack Oates: 26:03

So, yes, ok, I just want to let everyone know that this is the level of love that we have for each other. I knew exactly what Rev was thinking about.

Speaker 6: 26:11

And Zach, sorry just to throw in there with what Kelly and Sean was saying. At the end of the day, we all have to evolve. Our businesses need to evolve, our restaurants need to evolve because our consumers are evolving. They're evolving on their taste. They're evolving on what it is they want. They're evolving on the convenience factor. They're evolving on how they interact with us and, whether it's delivery and off-premise or digital sales or coloring books, it's ways to enhance the guest experience.

Speaker 6: 26:41

And you can't treat your diner for the retention of who's been returning into the restaurant for the last three months or three years, the same as you did when they first came in. They want the experience to be better, but they want the comfort and the memory to stay alive, right. What they don't want to do is they don't want to come back and have everything just be different. That's not evolution, right. That's change. People don't like change. They want to have the memory that they remember that great food, that great service, that great ambiance, but they want it to be better than they remember it being. And that's behind the scenes. And that's whether you want to get involved in off-premise or vending machines or serving birthday parties and off-site events or just creating an environment to say thank you, or creating a way to communicate with the guest afterwards, like that your company does, where here's two questions just say yes or no.

Speaker 6: 27:37

How do we do? It's evolution, and that is what's so important and that's what's made everybody on this call not only successful, but the industry successful. Right, we're all entrepreneurs. We didn't get in this business just to do the same thing every single day. The only thing we want to do every single day is make sure the guest is happy. Everything else we want to do is we want to improve the food every day. We want to improve the experience every day. We want to improve our employees' benefits and how they interact with us, and just make the guest and come back.

Zack Oates: 28:10

And talking about evolution here, jeff web three, this is something that you were one of the very first people to jump on this train. Red wants to talk.

Kelly MacPherson: 28:20

He's leaning on this talk. So right before our call, I ordered Gregory's, which you can see. They have the ovation, the ovation.

Speaker 4: 28:30

QR code there. Do you know?

Kelly MacPherson: 28:31

how I ordered it.

Speaker 4: 28:34

Via.

Kelly MacPherson: 28:35

Web 3,.

Speaker 4: 28:37

I use Devour.

Kelly MacPherson: 28:38

Go to order Gregory's right before we started recording today.

Speaker 6: 28:43

How go order Devour? Go to get WowBow delivered, come on.

Kelly MacPherson: 28:47

Is that in New York City Can I get WowBow?

Zack Oates: 28:50

All right done.

Kelly MacPherson: 28:52

What's wrong with you?

Zack Oates: 28:54

So when Kelly is getting on tonight in 12 hours, in the middle of the night, I know Kelly is going to pull up her Xbox console and start gaming, and when she does, that is like in the future, is she going to be able to order food from there. Is this a thing? Is it dying Like just as an early adopter in this tech? Like tell me, tell me what your opinion is, Jeff.

Speaker 6: 29:15

I don't believe anything is dying. I think everything has to evolve and businesses have to change. I mean, I'm sure, for everybody in this call who has two locations, if you have, if you open your third location, I'll pretty much promise your third location doesn't look like one and two, right? Your first location looked like this had worked. You built number two, but number three you said I want to change it a little bit, right? Maybe a change on number two? It's ever. It's constant change and improvement. And does Web three today look like what Web three looked like 18 months ago? And is that what it's going to look like in 36 months? Absolutely not. If I had the crystal ball, I would not be on this phone call. I would have won the seven million dollar billion dollar lottery, right, and doing something else. So I can't tell you what's going to happen.

Zack Oates: 30:01

Hey, jeff, I want to tell you real quick, if I won the seven billion dollar lottery, I'd still be on this call with you. So just just to let you know I don't have much, that's because I be paying you.

Speaker 6: 30:12

But, what, what, what, what. What I do want to say is look, do I believe that you can be the kids of today are going to be playing Roblox, or the grownups of today are going to play Roblox and be able to find a way inside that game to interact with the brand and have whatever that is whether it's an iPad or WoW about delivered to them as they're in the game. One hundred and fifty percent that is going to happen. Is it going to happen tomorrow? I don't think so, but I do know companies are talking to Roblox to do stuff like this Devour, go, who you ordered from where a partner with. They want to put one of our vending machines onto their platform where you can go to the vending machine, you can order as you stay in their platform and then do or dash from one of our five hundred plus delivery locations around the country will deliver the food to you.

Speaker 6: 31:04

Technology is going to keep enhancing. I mean we're foolish to think it's not going to improve and it is not going to look the same today tomorrow as it looks today. It's just it can't. Too many people want to get into the space. The hard part, I think, is that everybody who's influencing it? Who's making the change? Who's giving the input?

Speaker 6: 31:25

None of them are restaurant people, right? So it becomes us have to like, want to be part of the shiny new object at the cost of hopefully not damaging our brand, disrupting our employees and creating friction for our guests. That's the struggle when you deal with technology inside the restaurant space. It's not generally created by restaurant people. So there lies the problem. But Web 3, it's going to. It's going to be something. I don't know if NFTs are going to come back, I don't know how it's going to parlay, but it's going to be pretty fun when you're playing video games with your headset on and you can, all of a sudden, the doorbell rings and you know you stumble over there with your headset on and grab the food and start eating him.

Zack Oates: 32:10

Well, I can't wait for DoorDash to start offering services where they will feed it to you, and so you have to take your hands off the controller. They'll just come in. You have seven billion dollars.

Speaker 6: 32:20

When you win, I'll come feed you, don't worry. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 4: 32:24

I'll push the million to that.

Zack Oates: 32:28

Well, let's, let's do this. I'd love to. I'd love to wrap up with two final questions, and I'll start with Jeff and then we'll we'll go around. Two final questions are one what would be your, what would be your, your most important piece of advice to restaurant tours today? And two, what is it brand not represented in this podcast that is nailing the guest experience Basically? Who deserves an ovation? So, your piece of advice and who deserves an ovation?

Speaker 6: 32:59

When you when you restaurant tour entrepreneur on this, on this, who's watching this? Had one restaurant or one store, you worked tirelessly every day and night and you talked to every person that came in the door and you wanted feedback. We have got to get back on the floor in 2024. There's too many times that I go to restaurants that you can't find a manager because payrolls and issues, so they're too busy expediting the kitchen or working the host and not touching the guests. So owners, get back on the floor. Get your managers back on the floor and just talk to people.

Speaker 6: 33:32

The second one is who's going to? I mean, the easiest question in the world is who do you give an ovation for? Who's got great service? It's a complete cop out. But I always have to go to Apple. I mean you go in there and ask any question. Anybody can help you. They don't rush you and then you get hit with like 17 surveys after the fact Like, did we answer it? How can we give it back to you? What is it you need? I mean it's I sort of keep them sort of up at the top and it's not easy for luxury brand to be at the top of customer service. There are a number of luxury brands that miss all the time because they just think they're the best. So Part of to answer both of them together just care more. It's the first word in our employee handbook. It's the first word in Let Us Entertainment's employee handbook is care, care for each other, care for your guests, care for your employee and care about what you're doing, your food service and so on.

Zack Oates: 34:27

Okay, so going over to you, sean, who deserves what advice do you have for restaurants? And who deserves an ovation?

Speaker 5: 34:37

Advice is what my grandfather taught me, and that's stay curious, get involved and ask for help. Curiosity is the superpower. It's knowing that we don't know anything. And, to Jeff's point, how can we continue to improve and improve on hospitality? But finally, you have to get involved. Too much of this stuff is happening too quickly and we can't expect to have all the answers, and that's why you ask for help. It's why you listen to a show like this. That's why you reach out to leaders that are all available on LinkedIn.

Speaker 5: 35:06

Everyone on this call, I know, is weirdly available to have industry conversations. If you see them at a trade show, stop by and say hello. I mean what Rev does and Kelly and CJ. I'm honored to be on this call because of how much you guys give. You give and you give and you give. And if you're listening to this or if you're watching this, don't think that your restaurant doesn't matter. Raise your hand, ask for help, and if you ask for help, you can get the answers that you want and the ovation I would say that goes to Taylor Swift and Spotify, I think, on the largest scale possible. We all witness what happened in 2023 with her era's tour, the impact that she made economically for all the restaurants around the concert venues that she was doing. But then when I think of Spotify and my daughter driving my daughter to daycare and my son, my daughter saying play Taylor Swift and playing all these songs, and then Spotify personalizes a rap for me.

Speaker 5: 36:04

And in that rap, taylor Swift has a personalized video which goes to anyone that Taylor Swift is a fan of and that listened to it. But my daughter's sitting there saying like Taylor's talking to her, like how unbelievable is that. You know, my four year old girl and how many of the millions, tens of millions of people, and that's technology. That's what we talk about with digital hospitality. That is like that is the essence of storytelling. The fact that we're I'm sharing this with you is it made a profound impact on my little girl and imagine all the other little girls and dads and moms that Spotify was able to do.

Zack Oates: 36:40

That's awesome, yeah, and I think she just got upgraded to the billionaire status after this tour, and so I think she was named like the first, the first ethical billionaire ever. So, rev, kicking this over to you Advice and who deserves an ovation.

Kelly MacPherson: 37:01

It's hard to follow. The answers that were just but me. I'm generally like the tactical person, like the how to do it, so I'm gonna bring it to a the tactic level, because those were amazing strategies and great thoughts. My advice is manage your listings. If you are a restaurant, people go to Google and Yelp and Bing and Yahoo and Foursquare and Siri and Alexa and Instagram and TripAdvisor and all of those sites before they decide where to eat and even if they've eaten with you before they still go, look at your hours of operation and what's on your menu. And the easiest, fastest, cheapest, most scalable way to affect guest acquisition is manage your listings, and I've been on that talk track for 10 years and I'm not gonna get off it till every restaurant does it.

Zack Oates: 37:44

Well, hey, we believe that too. We actually just signed a partnership deal with Marquis because we love what they do, we believe in their tech and there's someone who does that just exceptionally well. I know Sean uses them as well.

Kelly MacPherson: 37:58

They are the gold standard of listings management, as I believe.

Speaker 6: 38:01

He used them too. Oh okay, yeah, that's over here.

Speaker 2: 38:06

Small fact we use them too.

Speaker 5: 38:08

There you go. Oh, good job, go, marquis go All right.

Kelly MacPherson: 38:12

now my given ovation again tactical. I want everybody on the show and that's listening to the show to go to Partners Coffee and Order Coffee. Even if you don't drink it, buy it for a friend, a colleague, somebody you love. Order Coffee from Partners. It's the most comprehensive buying digital buying process I've ever had. First of all, their site works easy. It's super great Like it's a really smooth ordering experience. As restaurants, we should all strive to have a really smooth online ordering experience. But the amount of follow-up emails that I got the confirmations the hey, we shipped your order today.

Kelly MacPherson: 38:50

Hey, it's on its way. Here's a link to track it. Like I have never felt more taken care of in a digital experience than ordering coffee from partners. It's happened to me two weeks ago. I participated in their Black Friday sale but I was literally blown away by the digital hospitality and the ordering process of Partners Coffee. So if you wanna go see what standard you should set for yourself as a restaurant, go order Partners Coffee. They did not endorse that.

Zack Oates: 39:17

Well, they probably soon will. I mean, I'm saying that here it's, sitting here drinking.

Kelly MacPherson: 39:22

Gregory's. So yeah, yeah.

Zack Oates: 39:24

Awesome. Well, CJ, what about you? Advice and Ovation?

Speaker 2: 39:29

Okay. So, as we all know, I don't come from the B space that everyone comes from. I come from the C space, the creative space. I'm an advertising and marketing guy and, being in the agency world, I think it's really important to mention the importance of flow. Just stay in the flow. So my advice is stay in the flow. Tap into everyone that is around you, listen to what they have to share when it comes to their experiences. It's the wisdom that you can't purchase. So stay in the flow which appears and then also within your customers and your employees. If you're in that flow, I let the juices of creativity flow and the endless possibilities of what it can be if you just apply yourself and motivate others. So that's my advice.

Speaker 2: 40:19

My Ovation goes to I specifically chose a food company because I think we're always looking to peers and we wanna kinda emulate the good things that we see out there, and we all have the mission and vision that we transfer on to our internal teams on both sides for our doghouse and then the actual friends I'm gonna shout out to Chick-fil-A, because it's not that they only offer amazing guest experience, it's what they set as the bar. They don't wanna be your best restaurant experience today. They wanna be your best service experience today. So that means you're dry cleaning your car wash Just go down the list of the places you're gonna experience within your normal day and they wanna be the best the thing that you remember in that day, and I think that's an amazing goal and everyone should shoot for that love that and they do.

Zack Oates: 41:17

One thing that Chick-fil-A does is not just service, but, man, do they nail consistency? I mean it is. It is the same exact experience, no matter where I go, no matter if I'm going first thing in the morning, last thing at night, five minutes before closing, two minutes after opening, like during the busy time. It is just the food and the service. The consistency is out of this world. It's like near creepy.

Speaker 2: 41:45

And their tech's pretty solid too, if you really think about it, yeah you're phenomenal right, perfect combo. Right of tech and people right. Yes, it's their folkside and they did not endorse this or sponsor me to say that.

Kelly MacPherson: 42:02

I just have one follow up to that eat more beef.

Zack Oates: 42:07

Well, Kelly, wrapping up this podcast, what would be your advice and ovation?

Speaker 4: 42:12

Well, that's hard to follow, everybody said, but obviously I'm coming to add it from a different perspective of although I'm an operator at heart, from the tech perspective, and I think what was mentioned earlier is looking at how you can continue to leverage I mean I talk about it a lot the science of hospitality with the art of hospitality and using the science of the tech to get managers back on the floor right, get them out of the office, simplify the operation so they can do what they do best, and that's focusing on the staff and the guests on every single shift, and so that's what we push for. I'm going to give the ovation and again, because I come from the behind the scenes and when I travel to New York, to our restaurants, right, and I think the consistency of the hospitality and taking our playbook of setting the table and bringing that to life every single day, I just I get amazed when I go into our restaurant. So I have to give credit to them.

Zack Oates: 43:22

Yeah absolutely, and I've never been into a Unisqa hospitality group restaurant and not been just blown away every single 100%.

Zack Oates: 43:33

Well, oh my gosh, this has been just. If you would have told me three years ago that I would have had the privilege of being on this call with you five, I would have just like pinched myself because there's no way that that could have ever happened, and I just feel so blessed. And so, today, for having such a profound impact on ovation, on our team, on me personally, on my family, today's ovation goes to each one of you Kelly, jeff, cj, rev, sean, just thank you so much for all that you do, thank you for being incredible humans and for really pushing the industry forward, and thank you for joining me on this 250th celebration.

Speaker 4: 44:16

Congratulations and thank you for what you do.

Speaker 6: 44:20

Thank you for having me, zach, and congrats on 250.

Kelly MacPherson: 44:24

Thank you for helping me recover. Yeah, I was gonna say thank you for helping me recover lots of guests.

Speaker 2: 44:32

Yeah, and thank you for helping me know about our guests and creating that two way dialogue. I mean, it's great to get one way feedback, but the ability to be able to go back and forth, that's part.

Zack Oates: 44:44

Thanks for joining us today. If you like this episode, leave us a review on Apple podcasts or your favorite place to listen. We're all about feedback here. Again, this episode was sponsored by Ovation, a two question SMS based actionable guest feedback platform built for multi unit restaurants. If you'd like to learn how we can help you measure and create a better guest experience, visit us at ovationupcom.