Building Transparent Restaurants for Guest Experience

Zack Oates 0:01

Welcome to another edition of Give an Ovation the Restaurant Guest Experience podcast , a show where we talk to multi-unit brands and industry experts to get their strategies and tactics you can use to create a five-star guest experience .

Zack Oates 0:14

This podcast is sponsored by Ovation , a two-question , sms-based real-time guest feedback platform that helps restaurants measure and improve their guest experience . Today we have Andrew Simmons , a CEO of Mama Romana's Pizza Pizzeria , and I am really excited to have him on because he is building a restaurant that is almost as open books as you can get with technology , though I mean , he has basically flipped the script and he is opening his restaurant and he is going through the challenges and the adventure and the successes and the failures or rather , successes and learnings , I should say of opening a restaurant so publicly . If you aren't following him on social media , you need to hop on LinkedIn , find Andrew Simmons right now and follow him , because it's incredible . First of all , andrew , thanks for all you do for the industry , thanks for being so open with the challenges that you're facing , and you do it quite publicly , I mean . So tell me what's your mindset around doing that and opening a restaurant with so much transparency ? Sure .

Andrew Simmons 1:28

So you know , of course , thank you for having me here . Super excited to be hanging out with you today , of all people .

Zack Oates 1:33

Yeah , it's , a lovely opportunity .

Andrew Simmons 1:35

You know Sean Wildchev earlier today , so you know .

Zack Oates 1:38

Huge step down . Yeah , yeah , no , or step up .

Andrew Simmons 1:45

So you know , for me it's really about . You know , I essentially bought this restaurant a month before COVID hit in January 2020 . I survived COVID by making kits for pizzas , dough balls and sauces and all that other stuff . I bought out my partner back in July of last year and I set about to change the way that the restaurant is run , with all of its employees and all of its low tech ways of doing business , because I'm in the state of California and everything in California seems to be more expensive .

Andrew Simmons 2:19

So that's kind of been my mindset is how to push the envelope , drop the labor footprint , automate where possible , but not lose sight of who we are as a restaurant . And that's been the whole , you know , the whole push as then . Since you know July of last year , we now run the restaurant with four employees , whereas we were at 14 . We still produce maybe not quite the same amount of volume . We've had our ups and downs over the past year because it's very tech-centric and the community that I'm in is maybe not as tech-centric as I'd like it to be .

Andrew Simmons 3:02

So , we get some pushback , we get some hate mail and whatnot , for , you know , trying to do what we're doing , but for the most part , you know , I think I'm on the right path and the direction that I'm taking it now that we've kind of cracked this puzzle is how to extend the footprint across multiple locations . So that's been my push . I'm trying to get three more stores opened up before the end of the year and then for next year another 21 stores .

Zack Oates 3:33

And that's incredible what you're doing , because you know , when you look at your , your pizza and your restaurant , your business , I mean replacing the humans with technology , but not all of it . You're replacing the non-essential touches , right , and then keeping the humans in that hospitality to have it be , because it is a very human , human industry . Even when you're going like full robot mode , you still need to have that , that touch with the guest , right . You still need to make sure the guest knows that you care about them . And so so talk to me a little bit about your philosophy on the most important aspect of guest experience nowadays .

Andrew Simmons 4:17

So for us , it's that communication with the guest . So we do the only subscription for selling pizzas . We do a 52 weeks of 12-inch pepperoni pizzas for $99 . So it's one pie per week . Use it or lose it . And that has allowed us to meet our customers more often , to be able to talk to them more often , to greet them by name when they come in , to have a more meaningful relationship with them . And although it sounds like kind of a loss leader type of application , because of the automation , we actually make a little bit of profit off of every single subscription . So if you think about the subscription like a gym membership , get your gym membership the first of the year and your goal is to change your lifestyle , change the way you look , get more buff , lose that balance whatever it is .

Andrew Simmons 5:16

And you start going to the gym and you go to the gym like every other day the first week and then maybe once a week and then pretty soon it's twice a month and then eventually it's like once a month and then maybe not at all , but you're still paying for it .

Andrew Simmons 5:31

So we've seen the same type of thing happen with our subscriptions . They show up every week for the first six weeks and then it turns out that as much as I love pizza , I don't love pizza every week , so then I show up every other week or I show up every third week . But in this timeframe when they're coming through , we're getting to meet these people on a daily basis . We're handing out our ovation feedback form with every order . We are conversing with them about how their experience has been . How's the food taste ? Is there anything that they'd want to change ? They have these great relationships with the consumers , but they pay that $99 , so they're showing up every week or every other week to help us , along with our own journey , to make the perfect experience for them , if that makes sense .

Zack Oates 6:21

Yeah . And how is that ? When you look at the perfect experience , because you have this triangle of speed , quality and price . And how do you look at that ? Because , apparently , from looking at how you're building this brand , you're really rejecting that triangulation of features and you're saying , well , no , we have a decent price , we have good quality and we're quick . How have you managed to do that when normally you have to choose one ?

Andrew Simmons 6:56

or max two . I wouldn't say we're quick . We're quick when it's your turn in line , but we have a long line .

Zack Oates 7:05

So say like .

Andrew Simmons 7:06

You placed an order today at four o'clock . You got in at the very beginning . You're probably gonna get your pie pretty fast . But if you order at five , we probably have 20 or 30 or 40 people ahead of you at five o'clock and everything that we make is all it's all custom , it's all stone baked . It's not in the conveyor oven , it's not something that we just churn out , like you know , fast . We still do it fairly fast . Where we deliver , we finish our orders within about 55 minutes on average , but it's not even though I can cook it super fast . It's still your place in line before we get to it and I'm only 55 minutes . There's a restaurant in Seattle that it takes . I think they have a three month waiting period for their pizza .

Zack Oates 7:50

I'd love to have it You're talking about , like Modo Yep yeah , yeah , I had him on the podcast and I mean fascinating , right , like how have you the fact that he's been able to pre-sell months in advance ? I mean that's crazy yeah completely crazy .

Andrew Simmons 8:07

But so you know we're so . So I you know , hypothetically we're hitting all three points of that triangle , but in reality we're hitting two of them . We have a great price , you know . We have great quality . There's no doubt about that . I get rate reviews from whoever comes down to have our pies and they're flying from Chicago . They come from San Francisco , they're here locally . They eat it . We're just not super fast yet .

Zack Oates 8:32

That's a good point , but I mean still , though , it's not like . You know you make the pies pretty quickly , but I think that's a good point . Though , is like you don't have the capacity to have everyone wait 300 seconds to like get their pizza . So that is a good point , though , like and if you're gonna pick , I think that's definitely the one that people are most forgiving on they will not come back with quality and especially if you set the expectations that it's not gonna be super , super quick , guests are forgiving of that . You know they get it . They just need to prep for that . What they don't like is if you tell them it's gonna be 30 and it's gonna be , and then it ends up being 55 , that's infuriating .

Andrew Simmons 9:21

So yeah , go ahead which I was gonna say which I'd love to do everybody at 30 minutes , but that's exactly the thing , and there's always something that happens . So you know , maybe that pie came out and then there was an issue with the pie like it got . You know , the customer didn't want it cut . For some reason , some people want one piece of pie and that's it . Wanna cut it at home as it makes more pie slices for them . If they cut it , then if we cut it .

Zack Oates 9:44

In theory I don't understand , but you know People ask the pies not to be cut , not to be cut .

Andrew Simmons 9:51

So that they can cut . Is that like a fairly frequent thing ? No , we see it at least three or four times a week , you know . Or they want to feed more people , so they'll double or triple cut it . You know so . Smaller stomachs , I don't know . You can have one slice , but I'm going to cut it up into 64 slices .

Zack Oates 10:09

Yeah , Well , I mean that way , eating more slices that are smaller , even though it equals half the pie . Still , it feels like you're eating a lot less . Pretty much Well , like when I eat food off of my wife's plate , it doesn't count for my calories . It's scientifically proven , right . So , speaking of that , what are some tactics that you have that you've tried lately to improve the guest experience ?

Andrew Simmons 10:36

So for us , you know , one of the things that we're running into is and this is my favorite is the . You know the DoorDash promise . You know you place an order on DoorDash and it's going to be done in 20 minutes . I don't know where DoorDash gets their number from , but it's really 55 minutes . So we're proactively calling customers when those orders come through to let them know that . Yes , we know DoorDash said 20 minutes , but it's really going to be 55 minutes before your pasta is done , you know , but it really in the end , whatever we're doing , it all boils down to communication . It's letting the customer know this is how long it's going to take for the order . When you call in for your order , I mean you can say I really need it in 30 minutes and I can try to fit it in , but the stark reality is it's probably going to be 55 minutes and no amount of you showing up early and yelling at me is going to make that pie come out any faster than 55 minutes . I said it was going to be .

Zack Oates 11:34

That's a really good point . I was talking to someone the other day who's a single friend of mine and he's crazy head over heels for someone and I'm like he's like what should I do , zach ? And I was like you should back off . And he's like why ? And I was like how does a rose grow ? He's like I'm not a gardener . I'm like , okay , but listen , man , what do you do ? Do you plant a rose seed in a bulb ? And then what happens ? Do you stick your hand in the next day and like , pull out a rose ? Like no , that's not how it works . And so you got to let it grow and you got to let good things be good in their own time , and same thing goes . But you got to set the expectations . Though . If someone told me , plant this today , rose tomorrow , I'm going to be frustrated and I think that's really that communication . You know and we've talked about dating and relationships that communication is so key . You have to have that communication in life , in business , and because disappointment is all made by expectations , right ?

Andrew Simmons 12:39

Right , rustin Hicks . Did we talk to Rustin ? Oh love .

Zack Oates 12:43

Rustin Hicks .

Andrew Simmons 12:45

Yeah , he actually bought into his own pizzeria after my experience . Oh no , kidding . Yeah , so he owns . I think it's MD Pizza in Midland Texas . He owns part of it .

Zack Oates 13:02

Oh , that's awesome .

Andrew Simmons 13:03

He's owned his own style of brand for that , but adding tech to it and whatnot . Love that Avan . I recommended he bought my dough press . I drove my dough press all the way out to his shop one week probably back in when , was that ? February or March ? It was terrible because I went through two snow storms and two big rain storms to get it out to his place and then flew back home from there . Yeah , he's a good guy .

Zack Oates 13:35

That's awesome . Yeah , he's great , definitely being willing , definitely should follow him and is the best place to find you on LinkedIn . I love your posts , but is that the best place to find you ?

Andrew Simmons 13:46

Yeah , I'm pretty much only on LinkedIn . I haven't really moved to any other platform . I don't want to say it's overwhelming , but there's a lot , a lot of stuff I get done through or have to get done throughout the day and then have to jump from one platform to another . To Right , I just love to write and I write about in the middle of the night . I'll wake up and think about something like I'm thinking about my , my microgreens . The other day , you know , like three o'clock in the morning of some sitting there , you know , writing out my post to drop it in the wind in . So when you guys all wake up in the morning Can read about this guy that built a greenhouse inside his restaurant .

Zack Oates 14:23

Isn't it ? It's . I love what you're doing , you're taking . You're taking things to just the next level , which is super cool . So find Andrew Simmons on LinkedIn , follow him . His posts are incredible . And , andrew , for being open , vulnerable , authentic fun and for being what I will call the first Brene Brown restaurant

Ovation

Zack Oates 14:43

tour . Today's ovation goes to you . Thank you for joining us . I'm giving ovation .

Andrew Simmons 14:48

Thanks , that , really appreciate that .

Zack Oates 14:52

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 ovation up comm .