Give an Ovation: The Restaurant Guest Experience Podcast with Zack Oates
Give an Ovation: The Restaurant Guest Experience Podcast is your backstage pass to the minds of hospitality leaders, innovators, and operators who are redefining what it means to serve. Hosted by Zack Oates, founder of Ovation, each episode dives into real-world tactics and inspiring stories from restaurant pros who know how to create five-star guest experiences—both in-store and off-premise.
From fast casual to fine dining, catering to curbside, learn how to drive loyalty, empower your staff, and deliver hospitality that hits home. Whether you're a restaurant owner, operator, marketer, or tech partner, this podcast will leave you with practical insights and plenty of reasons to celebrate and Give an Ovation.
Give an Ovation: The Restaurant Guest Experience Podcast with Zack Oates
Revolutionizing the Guest Experience With Eric Knott
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Unlock the secrets behind the fast-food revolution with Eric Knott, COO of PDQ, as we discuss the art of enhancing the guest experience in the bustling restaurant industry. Learn how PDQ's dedication to quality goes beyond mouthwatering meals, delving into the heart of their team dynamics and community engagement. As we examine the ripple effects of business practices on both community and industry, you'll grasp how PDQ is setting a new standard for fostering lasting relationships and exceptional service.
In this episode, you'll learn from Eric about:
- Daring operational choices
- Pivotal role of feedback
- Impact of guest engagement
- More!
Thanks, Eric!
Guest Experience Strategies and Tactics
Speaker 1Welcome to another 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 . As always , this podcast is sponsored by Ovation , a two-question real-time guest feedback platform that helps restaurants measure and improve their guest experience . Learn more at ovationupcom . And today I'm talking with one of my new friends . We've seen each other at a few trade shows , I've heard him speak at a lot of different places and it was so excited to get him on this podcast . Eric Knott , the COO of PDQ . What's up , Eric ?
Speaker 2How are you , Zach ? I appreciate you having me on . I feel like we've talked more in the last week or so outside of this podcast . I feel like I've been on the phone with you three , four times this week .
Speaker 1I know I feel like I've talked to you more than my wife this last week . Oh , I know it's just like there's so much going on and so I appreciate you taking some time out of your busy schedule to come on to give an ovation , and I was really excited to have you on because you are someone who is so obsessed with the guest experience . And , to start off , I really want people to understand so PDQ . A lot of people think it means pretty darn quick . So tell me about what does PDQ mean ? And you've had over 13 years there to internalize what PDQ means . Why don't you tell people who aren't as familiar ?
Speaker 2Yeah , okay . So first of all , pretty darn quick . I couldn't tell you how many times I've heard that and my response is pretty simply you can call us whatever you want as long as you keep coming back and having people , but it actually stands for people dedicated to quality . And you mentioned it about the guests a second ago . But really we have three arms that we consider our people , and that is our team members , our guests that come and visit and the communities that we operate in and everything we do .
Speaker 2We just try and stay true to that dedicated to quality , whether it's the hospitality side of the business , the cleanliness side of the business and sanitation , the quality of the food , the communities that , again , we're involved with , everything we do . We just try and stick to that same mantra . And it all starts with the people that work there and the people that come and visit with us . But 13 years we are a quick service chicken restaurant . We only have one protein . All 60 restaurants have a drive-thru . We have 10 other off-prem locations and airports and arenas and things like that , and then soon we're hoping to build our first inline unit as well , without a drive-thru .
Speaker 1Oh , wow , and that's something that , as we're looking across the board , everyone's trying to add a drive-thru . What's the motivation for testing out removing a drive-thru ?
Speaker 2Yeah , so over 13 years we've known nothing but drive-thru and what we've seen in these off-prem deals where we're in an airport or an arena . I know that that's a captive audience , but we do extremely well . We'll go into an arena and within the first year we'll be the number one grossing restaurant in the arena the first year we go in . So we started thinking well , maybe the product and what we do is good enough that we could obviously go into an inline space without a drive-thru . And nowadays , as much business goes through our app and through digital channels and things like that our catering business we really feel that we could sustain our business in an inline model . So to your point , with everybody else wanting to add drive-thrus , real estate starting to become very very difficult to find so we're taking the opposite approach .
Speaker 2Not that we're not going to build any more drive-thrus , but we're also going to try and put them in inline spaces as well .
Speaker 1I love that . I love the opportunity to really test out different things . Now , in terms of franchisee , franchisor model , what do you guys think about that ?
Speaker 2Well , we only have three units today that are franchisees out of the entire system , so we are predominantly corporately owned . Not saying that we wouldn't go into that model at some point , but we've kept our controls in place and being able to grow sustainably over time under one umbrella and listen , with franchisee , it's a great model . You can grow very quickly . If you bring on the right people , you can sustain what you want over time . We've seen it done . We're seeing it being done right now with other concepts , but we're just not there yet not today .
Speaker 1Yeah , and I think that that's really amazing that you could say that , because you talked to certain locations , certain brands , they've got , you know , a food truck and they're like , great , we're ready to franchise and it's like whoa , hey there , tanto like let's , let's slow down and but .
Speaker 1But you guys are really because , because you think your name is , it's so cool that your name is your like mission and vision of , of people Dedicated to quality . And actually I wore this shirt today specifically for this podcast . This is my people shirt . These are a whole bunch of different people on it , because I , I just appreciate that focus on people and and both , both people , because one of our values at ovation is build value for each other , the industry and Our customers .
Speaker 1And when we look at that , it's like it's not just the people , it's not just our customers , which is everyone thinks about that so quickly of like our customers , our guests , that's the people . But then it's like each other , right , like the , the team . But then it even goes beyond that and in your case , it's the industry , in our case , in your case , it's a community , in our case it's the , the entire industry . How do we uplift and build value for people all around us ? Because that , that vision and that mission that Transcends proteins , right , and that that gets people excited about coming to work and and about being there and doing something and , at the end of the day , all of what people are doing is trying to create a great guest Experience , right , so I would ask you like , what's you go ahead ?
Speaker 2one , one thing I want to just interject . You know I used I've said this line for years . You know , people , you're in the restaurant business . No , actually I'm in the people business . We just happen to serve food right . And now , you know , over the last three or four years I Altered it just a bit and said , yeah , we're actually in the people business . We happen to serve food with great technology , because their space now is just Exploding with tech and I'm all for it , yeah , and you're someone who's been a great adopter , but you also are good at like , pushing back .
Speaker 1You haven't . You haven't over stacked your technology , and I think that's something that's very Enticing to do . You go to a trade show and you meet 10 people . You implement five things . Then you go to a trade show the next month and there's like three more things you want to implement and all of a sudden , you've got 15 logins . You're paying . You're paying , you know , $10,000 a month per location and you're like wait , what's going on ? Right ?
Speaker 2What happened ? What happened , yeah , exactly .
Speaker 1And what . What's been your ? Before you jump to the guest experience , one quick question on that is what's been your philosophy around not adding too much and knowing what the right tech is to add ?
Speaker 2Yeah , that's . That is actually a tough one to answer , especially right now in the tech world as it relates to restaurants , because everybody's starting to consolidate things and bring things under one umbrella , and what you think today is going to change tomorrow . So I think that you know , not to your point . It's easy to go to a trade show , you bring all these , these vendors back and I'm gonna do this and I'm gonna do that and this and that . The next thing you know , you wake up and your head spinning on what you just did . So I think taking your time is really like what .
Speaker 2I guess where I'm at with it , I try and understand it , understand the values of the company that we're doing to do diligence on where they're headed , what's on the roadmap and that word roadmap can be scary to someone . What happened ? It's really , you know , six months from now , not six weeks from now or six years from now . So I just try and take my time and then bring as many team members as possible into the conversation that it touches , whether it's , you know , something like ovation , right where it's . Somebody else is going to be directly Working with that , not myself . So I'll bring them into the conversation , or I'll even bring team members from the restaurant in the conversation . I just think that you know taking your time and bring the people that actually have their hands on is so important , whether we're talking , whatever type of technology it is for the restaurant .
Speaker 1I think that's so awesome . And all of this boils down to the guest experience , right ? So what would you say is the most important aspect of guest experience nowadays ?
Speaker 2Well , I'm gonna go to parts to this question . So you know the first part . When you look at the total guest experience today versus five years ago , ten years ago you could get by with either really good food or really good service , right . But now , because of inflation and what the restaurant space is had to do from a pricing aspect , you really have to look at the total experience . Not that it wasn't important back then , but now it's so important . So you have to hit not only on the quality of the food and the speed and the accuracy , but then the the personal side in the hospitality . But then you have to take a step further and look at the physical side are you doing the right things externally with your building , inside your building ? But that's how the guest now signifies whether what they gave you of their hard earned money and whether they feel good about the experience that they had in totality .
Speaker 2And then the second part is when regards to feedback , and I think that Too many operators look at feedback as a dirty word . Or they're afraid of it or they come up with you know ways to justify that . Oh well , this happened , so this happened . And I look at feedback is if you truly are open to the feedback you're receiving and your goal is that you want to be better because of it , then that can be used as a very successful tool for you , whether that's the guest feedback , positive , negative suggestions , your team members feedback . One of my favorite questions that
Improving the Guest Experience
Speaker 2? I visit a lot of restaurants , by the way , I still am very active In our restaurants . I feel like our people in the field will give you the best ideas , will give you the things that are wrong with the concept or the food quality or the food item , etc . But what are my favorite questions to ask ? One of the restaurant is so , so tell me what the guests are telling you .
Speaker 1What do they ?
Speaker 2want to be dislike . What could we do better ? I think you always have to and , like I said , whether it's the guest of the team member , you always have to seek to understand what it is that people want from you . And then , from a positive standpoint , when , when you get positive feedback from the guest or from the team member , I think you have to embrace it , you have to celebrate it . And then , when you're getting constructive feedback , maybe it's a system wide issue . Maybe , hey , you got too much salt in your , in your , your , your breading that you're putting on your chicken . Whatever it is , that's a systemic issue , most likely . And then you have your individual store level feedback . Right , hey , listen , if I see the store is is running slower and drive through , or they're getting complaints on on hospitality , we need to address that . We need to get to the root of the problem , not only to make that specific restaurant operate more efficiently or you know the people being happier that work there , but also you know those guests that come through , and again I'll go back to it . They're giving you hard earned money every single day and we need to make sure that they have a great experience .
Speaker 2And then , lastly , you know , guest recovery . I mean I can't tell you how many times me personally . I'll pick the phone . We'll get a survey that comes in where a guest is really upset , and I'll say , hey , give me that number .
Speaker 2I want to call that person myself , you know , and of course the operator will call after , but I want to hear it from them and I want them to know how important it is to me that we are going to take care of it , that we're human , we're going to make mistakes and I'm very sorry , but we will make the adjustments at the restaurant and we will make it right and go above and beyond for that guest . I mean , I can't tell you , our people at the office are probably tired of it . But I'll say , hey , can you send a care package to this person ? So you call and say , hey , I had a bad experience . And then three days later you get a basket with PDQ T-shirts for your kids and water bottles and all this other stuff . But again , long story short , I can get a little long winded , as you know , zach .
Speaker 1But I just look at this is great man .
Speaker 2Yeah , it's so critical . If you embrace it , it can be so critical to the success of your organization .
Speaker 1And it's like stepping on a scale , it's like looking in the mirror right when I mean I love my 600 pound life . It's like such a fun show for you to watch but very motivational for me . But as I watch that show and these people step on the scale and they haven't stepped on the scale in decades they're shocked to see what the weight is . And a lot of people they think of feedback as that mirror , as that scale . But you know what you only can improve , what you're measuring , and so measure it and then you have the tools and the right visibility to know what to improve , cause , if you want to be better and do better , I mean , like my wife and I , we have a conversation every Sunday where I ask her what can I do to improve ? Why ? Because she's the most important person in my life and if there's something I'm doing that's bugging her , I want to know about it and I want to know about it soon .
Speaker 1And shouldn't we be that way with our guests ? I mean , in a way , we're trying to connect and build this relationship with our guests , so make it easy for them to give you that feedback . And then to your point I love , eric , how you do something with it , right . And you ? And then the cool thing about asking your employees about that is at dinner with my kids I've got a four , six , two and newborn , and my four and six year old . When they sit down at dinner I say what's something that you did nice for somebody today ? Why ? Because then they're thinking during the day , oh , I need to do something nice for someone today so I could tell my dad I did something nice and granted , not a great motivator , like I want them to do it , just because they're nice , they're kind people . But your question of what are the guests telling you Then ? What is every person that you ask that question thinking about ? I need to listen better . I need to listen to what the guests are telling me .
Speaker 2There's a reason why we have two years in one mouth sack , and I love the fact that you brought up the accountability , because I don't remember where I picked it up . But , yeah , we need to put in place these accountability mirrors all throughout our life . Right , we need to be able to look at it and say , yes , this is not good or we can be better . We can improve this aspect of our life , whether that's the guest experience , get into the gym , eat and write , taking care of the team that you're around All those things are important in life and I think , probably more than ever , we need more daylight . I like the term daylight is the best disinfectant . So when you look at things that need to be done or changed or enhanced , it's like we don't have to wait . There is no time to wait till tomorrow If we need to start this today .
Speaker 1Yeah , totally . I totally agree , Eric , and real quick . What's a tactic that you've used to improve the guest experience ? I love , by the way , your third point in the last question about actually getting on and calling some of these people that have complaints and hearing about it firsthand . If Eric has 100 locations and he's able to talk to customers , you should be able to as well . So , anyway , besides that , which is a great tactic , any other tactics that you've used to improve the guest experience ?
Speaker 2We go more for and I've seen success in just response time . Today we don't have be the first one . Today we don't have necessarily something in place to help us with that to make it easier . So we're hopeful that very soon we will have something in place . But right now it's all about pick up the phone . Pick up the phone as soon as you get and of course we can go through . There's emails and there's the contact us and there's different ways that these guests can give you feedback how we still have a phone in the restaurant that gets messages right Voice mail .
Speaker 2So my point of all of it is is pick up the phone and call email , get in touch with them as fast as humanly possible . We have a 24-hour rule and that is any piece of feedback . And that may not seem very fast to some that listen to this and there's probably some that do a lot better job with technology , but today as it stands , we have a 24-hour rule . You leave a comment , you leave a message , anything that comes in within 24 hours , you're getting contacted back by somebody on our team and most likely it will be the operator of that local store . So that way next time we invite you in , you can say hello to them . So my quick answer would be response time . You have to be able to get to that guest and make them feel important very quickly . Nothing is worse than getting a follow-up comment that says hey , I left you an email four days ago and I've heard back . I would literally my mind would just explode if that happened .
Speaker 1Yeah , oh , man , love that . It's such a great tool . And what do I mean ? The fact that you have a metric of 24 hours , I think , is phenomenal , and let's help you get that down . Yeah , that's right . That's right . So , eric , who's someone in the restaurant industry who deserves novation ?
Speaker 2Who's someone that we should be following , you know , I thought really a lot about this one , and it's hard not to see some of these guys out there especially and I'm probably going to put myself out there but I think Dave's Hot does a really good job . I think Dave's Hot Chicken does a really good job . You know , not only are they growing very quickly , but as far as just wanting to get that guest information getting back to them , they do a great job . And then there's actually I want to give a shout out to , there's a smaller company out of New York City called Avocadria .
Speaker 1Oh , we love them .
Speaker 2Yeah , so he does a really , really good job out there too as well . But listen , I mean people like you , zach , are making it very easy for us to do a good job . I mean , that's the reality , you know , and we've gone through the Ovation platform and what you guys are doing , and I think that you're making our lives easier and you're bettering our business through what you guys are doing . So , kudos , I guess giving Ovation an Ovation I don't know if that's a double standard .
Speaker 1Well , I appreciate that Eric Buttering up the host always works well , but , eric , where can we go to learn more about PDQ ? Or maybe we could follow you on social media .
Speaker 2Yeah , so look , we're on all platforms . You know your Instagram , TikTok , Snap , Facebook , LinkedIn . It's all eat PDQ , eat PDQ , EAT PDQ . But , yeah , check us out and , yeah , follow us , Give us a follow .
Speaker 1Okay , and I know that you do some good posts on LinkedIn . So , Eric , not with a K and Eric for being a person dedicated to quality people . Today's Ovation goes to you . Thank you for joining us and giving Ovation . Thank you so much , Zach , I appreciate it . Thanks for joining us today . If you liked 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 .