Rev Ciancio on Lessons from COVID-19 for Restaurant Owners

spk_0:   0:03
What's up? Zack. Oh tear author, entrepreneur and customer relationship guru. Welcome Thio, given Ovation growth strategies for restaurants and retailers where we find industry leaders to share their secrets to grow your business. This podcast is sponsored by Ovation. A customer experience in marketing platform that gets you more reviews. More feedback in more revenue. Wanna learn more? Visit ovation up dot com Welcome. And today we've got forever with us. Breath has spent the last 20 years in as a hospitality technology marketing consultant and food influencer. He believes that pizza is a religion and, um, crazy crazy times and again I'm coming at you from Elation headquarters number two, which is my wife sewing room. So appreciate you being with this Rev

spk_1:   1:00
Thank you for having me. I'm a I'm in yet. Management H Q. I've had this LLC since 2009 but it's not like a company, right? It's just a wait for me to write off taxes, but this is essentially imagine jealousy. So I got frequent 82 poster. I gotta Spider Man fidget spinner. You know, we're good.

spk_0:   1:18
Nice. There we go, man. Hopefully no one from the I arrest watches this Uh, well, I know I do write off a lot, so we'll see. Awesome. Okay, so, Reb, here we are. We're at the cusp in the very beginning of this Corona virus. What should people be? Restaurant owner's hospitality owners. What should they be thinking? What should they be feeling? What do you think? Doctors about your experience?

spk_1:   1:44
What should people be thinking and feeling? Just put the pressure of the entire industry on my back. Yeah. You know, I keep getting lots of people are asking me my opinion on this. I'm pretty steadfast on. I think that this is not just the business, but as a society, we're about to go through a pretty seismic transformation, right? Like we're not gonna go back to the way things were like, We're not just gonna return. There is a new normal we have been We're not gonna be reinserted to the Matrix, so to speak. And I think the effect of that there's gonna be a lot of effects, but from a business level, I think two things are really gonna happen, and I'll do some storytelling. The M t A. In New York City last week announced that they were gonna do enhance cleaning of the subway, and that meant that they were gonna clean the subway twice a day. I'm like people's minds will blown. There were like, Wait a minute. You're only how often are in often Were you cleaning it before? Right now, the expectation will be set that it has to be cleaned two times a day. And so that operational change for the M T A is gonna be a seismic change in their operation. And the same thing, I think, is gonna happen to dining in restaurants, right? You know, all these restaurants are putting up messages about enhanced cleaning and sanitation practices and yada yada that is going to set a new standard, I think, for cleanliness and safe environments. But moreover, the bigger ship that's coming, you know, I think the world in general has been moving towards, you know, cloud computing work from home software technology. Adoption on demand service is like all these sort of things that the Internet has created on that for sure, we were already moving in the direction of, you know, I think with all the I don't think adoption was moving at the speed of creation, like technology for sure is outpacing adoption. And I think what's gonna happen here is that adoption is going to be forced to speed up one from home on demand. Cloud computing, like all these things that are enabling our society to basically still operate in the midst of basically a lock down, are gonna show us the possibility of what those things can view on. And I think that's going to change our entire society. I know him a little long winded here on the answer, but

spk_0:   3:46
no, this is great riff

spk_1:   3:48
like, how is that gonna affect restaurants? Well, if I was a restaurant operator right now and I'm not because I'm actually a failed one from six years ago. Congratulations. Thank you. Use some people, pay for an MBA. And I bought a bar. Yeah, I still I learned just as much, you know, but not in a different way. I don't have something

spk_0:   4:06
in my

spk_1:   4:06
wallet in a place we need Hugh poster. If I was a restaurant operator right now and I was forced to either close or cheese who delivery and pick of only model, I would be thinking about what can I learn in this moment or what can I do right now? That's gonna affect my business Positively. Movie forward, right? That's like an immediate thing. Actually, I was still with What can I do right now? What can I learn from this in the immediate? Like what? How did I adapt to something that I can actually continue to practice afterwards before I go to my second point? Given example, a friend of mine is ah CEO 15 Location restaurant, and they're different brands. So they have, like some casual, fine dining whatever, and they find out anyone's they just shut down there like there's this. Nobody's coming in to eat a steak like we're not gonna do it. But with their fast with their casual brand, they're thinking about like, how do we keep delivering pickup going? And I was like, Well, why don't you just do like a value driven menu, right? Like if you're normal entrees, you know, here in New York City, 25 bucks Is there a $12 version that you can create that feels easy to pick up or easy deliver at a higher pace? That which I would have come in sat in your dining room, right? Yeah. If you're that restaurant and you can figure out operationalized like a $12 menu are no depending on where you are in the country. A $5 breakfast like the type of thing that, like eels, easy isn't too big. Discount on what your price and your cost of goods are. And it's gonna potentially increase the frequency from which I touch your brand. In this moment, that could turn into an operational efficiency moving forward, right? Are you rested with are worried about, you know, third party delivery and ghost kitchens and all those things, and that, for sure, is a restaurant threat on a traditional model. But like you have a kitchen in the staff, maybe you just create your own version of that you're not even know. These are the things I would be thinking about to go

spk_0:   5:59
down and touching, touching on that road quick, because at the end of the day, right, nothing's gonna be the same. Nothing right. And we're going to find a new normal, and it's not gonna be crazy different from what we had, but it's going to evolve. Ah, lot of things like we're going to this forced evolution. And so the question is, what do you look like? What does your brand looked like after all of this? And and that is setting them, You know, you set the stage for that right now. For example, I mentioned it's another podcast, but people who had a sit down restaurant there now serving bagels and and burgers and outside the restaurant, you know, from, like a little stand. I mean, you need to evolve to think about what does this mean for for your menu and not be afraid to change things up, right? A lot of people get gets stuck in, like I can't change it. This is my menu. But you have to go, and you have to at least consider it, right,

spk_1:   6:57
Right. And I think I mean to your point, I think restaurants are gonna have to start to bend to the laws of technology. And by that I mean, like, you know, there are tons of software companies that go and create a product that's interesting, but the ones air the successful, the ones that solve a need, right? Restaurants. Traditionally, that model is built on a almost an ego basis. I'm a great chef. I wanna share this food. I want to create this environment. And it's like, Well, does the neighborhood actually need your restaurant? Like to people, like Do you have to create the needles? The need already there write software in 2020. Software gets created based on a need like, Oh, the market needs this. I'm creating it and developing it. I think restaurants are gonna have to start to think even more about does my market need this? Does my neighborhood need this? And, you know, for a restaurant operator that was afraid of a ghost kitchen like that, God created out of a need, right? If you arrest on Operator, you need to think about now. Like, how does my restaurants serve the needs of my community like, Yeah, okay. It's a fun place to eat the food or good above a block. And those things matter to a certain extent. But they're not gonna matter in the same way, moving forward the need for people to have something, whatever that is, is going to be what changes in the future.

spk_0:   8:13
I love them and and and going along with that. You know, as we're looking at, looking forward to this, what can people be expected in terms of some of these new norms? I mean, with, with cleanliness, sanitation, I mean, is that going to be Yeah. Do you think that restaurant owners and operators are gonna have to bring in like, another staff member just to clean or like, What do you think in the new normal? It's,

spk_1:   8:38
I think, the new normal. I'm gonna go up Ah, level if that's okay Here. I think the new normal is a readjustment of an old normal, which is restaurants are about the customer periods and you'll hear a lot of people say, Oh, it's about the food. And it's all about the food and the food, the food, the food. And, you know, there's a reason I wear black because I do believe pizzas a religion, and I like the food. But, you know, I can make a pizza in my kitchen, or I can have it brought to me and eat it on my couch like I go to the restaurant for the experience. And so I think the entire experience has to change. The experience has to be customer ordinated. And so if your business was only, like, kind of customer oriented first now you're gonna have to be really customer oriented. And if that requires a cleaner dining room or, you know better technology to unlock a new new parts of the guest experience or menu modifications based on what people need well like back to me is part of the customer experience. And if that requires, like new staff members or even just a reconfiguration of your staff, well, that's how you survive, right? Like one day a fish crawled out of the water because it was hungry and then it grew legs right. Restaurants have to be more have to grow their customer legs.

spk_0:   9:52
Yeah, And what about communicating with customers? You know, we've had some customers that have had a lot of success in actually communicating because they've been collecting customer information and what they purchase and who they are in phone numbers and e mails. And so now, when something like this hits, they have the tools and the data to do that, and people who don't I feel like they're going to struggle, because how'd they let people know if they're open hasn't let people know that their menus call how they let people know anything. And then when everything goes back, how did they get feedback to know? You know, to keep more, uh, customer centric like, Have you found people wanting to communicate more with their customers who didn't previously? Or do you find that people who are doing it people who aren't aren't doing

spk_1:   10:48
it for sure. On the other side of Corona virus, there would still be a few restaurant operators out there who hate Yelp. But they might not be long for the game. Sort of. The wheat and shaft will be separated forcibly there. But I do think that customer touch points and customer information is the name of the game, right? And for sure. If you're a small operation, your mom and pop shop for one or two locations and, like how did I manage a customer CR M and blah blah like I don't know. But you better figure it out because that's

spk_0:   11:17
where we're going,

spk_1:   11:17
right, And that's like, um, every single person that orders delivery from their local Chinese place also uses Amazon. So as consumers are, expectations are matching the Amazon experience and the uber experience and interesting the software experience. And so, like when I purchased something, I want an email receipt within seconds, and I expect you to ask me for a review. And I'm kind of hoping you reply when I tell you on Social media, right,

spk_0:   11:44
Louise it into the day that that's a great point, right? Because people as a consumer, we don't care. You know, if you've got a $1,000,000,000 behind you or not, right, it's all about the experience for us. I think that's a great point that we really are comparing the local Chinese restaurant, the Amazon, and graded There is some leeway, right? I mean, like, I'm not gonna expect, like the full maybe not Zappos or Nordstrom service. But that's what I'm comparing it to because that's where I just shop half hour earlier, before he ordered that Chinese, I think that's a really interesting point.

spk_1:   12:21
Yeah, I think so. I think we're about to see cheers. Two point. Oh, um, everybody will know your name and they need to email you using your name like it's no longer walking into the bar and having you know, being greeted by Sam, you're gonna be greeted by Sam Injury. And I don't care if you're selling me, you know, software, Ah, car or French fries. Like I think that customer touch points and customer information is the only way forward. And it doesn't need to be a completely robust system for sure Mean case in point. There's a number of software out there that are easy to use and easy manage on. I guarantee for restaurant operator that, like, turns up the dial, you know, 1% and using data like they're gonna evil light years ahead. Of all the curmudgeons that think we're two mouths still drive business.

spk_0:   13:05
Yeah, So I'm guessing from that statement you don't think that word of mouth still drives business? No, I do think

spk_1:   13:12
word of mouth drives business. Word of mouth just happens online now, right? A yelp Reviews is word of mouth and influence, or is word of mouth Facebook advertising as word of mouth there's more. There's more word of mouth than there's ever been. However, now a restaurant can actually already business can actually stoked the fire and manage their word of mouth. And that, to me, is where we're headed. And if I was a restaurant operator in this moment that we're going through in this country and around the world, if I'm not so busy running a restaurant because nobody's eating it, I would be spending some time looking at one of the technologies of the changes that I could make on the top level my business to embrace this change that consumers are looking or

spk_0:   13:54
love that rob someone. Someone's listening right now. They've got 10 locations there, the obvious head of operations. What do they do? Like what do you what would you recommend? Her head of marketing? What would you say? Here's he was kind of your game plan

spk_1:   14:09
man. I wish we had a white board. If I was, if I was a set of restaurant executives, I would get out a huge white for a piece of paper, and I had makes three columns would do. I would do awareness, acquisition and retention out and write all the things that I'm doing in those three columns to drive each stage of that funnel. How am I getting people to know about my restaurant? How am I getting them to come in my restaurant And how am I getting them to return to my restaurant? Okay, Restaurant. Spend a ton of time thinking about operations. How do I manage employees and inventory and how do I do Payroll and all the other things in man that stuff super important. And the reason I don't own a restaurant anymore because I was super bad at those terrible, a terrible, terrible, terrible how it was really good at marketing, and I think that restaurants put marketing last. But if you don't have a butt in a seat, what is the point of managing inventory? What is the point of managing staff? So if I was an executive right now, I would take those three columns awareness, acquisition our attention. I would write down everything that our business is doing in those three columns to drive revenue, and when I started to figure out what moved them through, I would reverse engineer it so I would take the retention side of the column like, How do I know that I get a customer to return? How do what you know is, are you doing email? The acute bonds? Is there, um, on my online offline promotions? You do like I would do that. Do I need more? See, Aram, do we need more email? Do anymore? And then I would start the back that into acquisition It would start to back that into awareness. So ultimately, if I'm using, let's say, a little guilty program, some sort of sea air, and that's it, Uh, exact. Thanks for comin aided by and tacos last week. You want a free taco next week and you do it. Well, I mean more Zach. Right? So I'm gonna reverse engineer how I get you to that point. So do my acquisition efforts that need to be about loyalty? Maybe not. Do they need to be about just getting you to give me your email address?

spk_0:   16:10
That's a pretty

spk_1:   16:11
good acquisition point. Cool. So if we see more Zach happening than my awareness stage needs to be how do I get Zack to think about giving me his email address, right? Not just we have pizza. Great. Everybody meets. Ah. Ah. And I would tell restaurant operators I just understand that up in one sense, I would think about how they gain awareness, acquire and retain customers in a why you. Why now. Why us Marketing bundle fashion.

spk_0:   16:41
I love that, Rev. Dude, I sincerely appreciate you happen on sharing some of your insights here. Super fascinating. Ah, working people learn more about you.

spk_1:   16:51
Thank you. I really appreciate it. I'm here to help restaurant tours be better at gaining awareness, acquiring customers and retaining them. The easiest way to find me is I have the same screen name on every single platform. It's Reb C and C O R E v C I A N c I o. Most people are like I can't remember how to spell that. Just Google expert Burger Taster and you'll find me. And if that still doesn't work, look at my other INSTAGRAM account. It's got 300,000 followers and it's just pictures of french fries. It's fun with fries. You find me any of those ways.

spk_0:   17:23
Awesome, Rev. Today's ovation goes to you, man. Thanks for keeping us informed keeping us in the loop and everyone looked up. Rep. Glad you're with us today. And thank you. Risk takers, the troublemakers, the crazies who are keeping this world clothed and fed. You're the ones who truly deserve innovation Again. This podcast was sponsored by Ovation to see how we could help you grow your business. Go to ovation up dot com. Don't forget to subscribe and remember, be sure to give someone in your life innovation today.